Upper Level Course Requirements
Upper-Level Nursing Courses
The program consists of 32 credits of upper-division courses. All program required courses must be completed with a C or better.
Professional Role Transformation (NUR3825) is required as the first upper-level nursing course and Professional Nursing Excellence (NUR 4940C) is a capstone course which is taken during the final term of enrollment in the nursing courses. All NUR courses must be completed before taking NUR4940C; however, a student may take non-nursing courses concurrently with NUR4940C. Although a preferred progression of other courses is recommended, there is sufficient reinforcement of key concepts across the curriculum, without redundancy of material, to enable the student to be successful if courses are taken in a different order.
Courses are offered fully online. Classes are not self-paced and assignments are due per the published schedule in the course syllabus. The classes are taught in 8-week FASTTRACK terms with the exception of Individual, Family, and Population Health NUR4648C) and Nursing Excellence NUR4940C, which have experiential learning and are thus a full 16-week term (12-weeks in the summer). Students should be aware that a course taught in the 8 weeks is not less work but that they are doing 16 weeks of work in 8 weeks, which is a demanding schedule; however, the accelerated schedule enables a part-time student to complete two classes every semester while focusing on only one class at a time. Due to the pace and rigor of the courses, the student should not enroll in more than two nursing courses during each 8-week term.
BSN Courses that have a C attached to the course number, currently NUR4638C Individual, Family, and Population Health (Community) and NUR4940C Nursing Excellence (Capstone), have an experiential learning component. These classes require that part of the course be completed in a health facility of your choice, provided the course objectives can be met at that facility. Experiential learning is self-scheduled although there may be restrictions on scheduling with specific deadlines for completion as outlined in the course syllabus. It will be your responsibility to schedule the experiential learning component with the facility and to know the facility’s expectation for meeting specific health and other requirements. Some facilities require such items as proof of current immunizations and a criminal background check. Other facilities may have other requirements or no requirements. If you schedule with a facility that has these requirements, please realize that this process takes time and that you will be responsible for the expenses incurred to be compliant with the requirement. For this reason, many students choose to select their own employment setting for the experiential learning component. Please keep this in mind as you prepare to take these courses to avoid problems with completing the experiential learning component, and thusly, not successfully completing the course.
Classes are offered year-round, including the summer. A full-time student may complete upper-division program requirements in three semesters and a part-time student may complete all upper-division requirements in five semesters. A student does not have to complete all lower-level non-nursing classes before starting on the upper-level nursing classes. They can be taken concurrently but should be completed prior to the Capstone course so that when it is completed, the student can graduate.
Upper-Division Required Courses: 32 credits
- NUR 3065: Health Assessment
- NUR 3125: Nursing Science and Pathophysiology
- NUR 3825: Professional Role Transformation Must be first NUR course taken
- NUR 3846: Nursing Theory
- NUR4638C: Individual, Family, and Population Health
- NUR 4775: Evidence-Based Practice
- NUR 4827: Nursing Leadership and Management
- NUR 4940C: Professional Nursing Excellence (Capstone)
For questions regarding lower-level general education courses, please contact an advisor in Student Services. For questions regarding baccalaureate courses, please contact a baccalaureate program specialist, Felicia Zimmerman at fzimmerman@polk.edu or Claudy Fenelon at cfenelon@polk.edu.
