Leadership in the Complex Healthcare System

Catalog description

This two-part course provides the didactic and clinical experiences in increasingly complex nursing care situations and environments which facilitate the students' transition to independent practice. In the lecture component, the focus is on the integration of knowledge and skill for nursing practice and develops the ability of students to see nursing practice as part of a complex system. It examines systems thinking and complexity, development of a leadership role and skills, inter-professional communication and teamwork, and leading change in healthcare organizations. This course also examines the nurse's role in improvement science and patient care delivery, focusing on quality improvement processes, patient safety, nurse sensitive process and outcome metrics with micro-systems. This course also allows students to develop the capacity for clinical expertise, leadership, and for translating the science of the profession into practice. Students also are assigned to a seminar component that is correlated with their selected site for the specialty clinical practicum. This aspect of the course allows the student to further develop leadership concepts learned in lecture while developing additional expertise in a specialty area of practice. These seminar components are adult health and illness, adult critical care, obstetrics/labor & delivery, and pediatrics. Advanced simulation experiences and extensive clinical practice in an area of the students' choice provide multiple opportunities to synthesize the multidimensional aspects of nursing and provide the environment which facilitates transition to professional nursing practice. Students select from a variety of settings in which to refine their practice skills. Principles of leadership, accountability and change will be applied to clinical practice as the student begins to operationalize the professional nursing role.…