Fundamentals of Nursing (Theory) Syllabus
Course Name:
Fundamentals of Nursing (Theory)
Course No.:
BSN 4
Placement:
First Year
Total Hours:
100 Hours
Total Marks:
100 Marks
Course Description
This foundational course, Fundamentals of Nursing, provides students with essential knowledge for basic nursing care. It focuses on meeting client needs in both hospital and community settings. Key areas of study include the comprehensive Nursing Process, thorough Patient Assessment, and critical skills in Infection Prevention. A solid understanding of these Fundamentals of Nursing, including Personal Hygiene and Patient Safety, is crucial for a successful career.
Course Objectives
At the end of the course, the student will be able to:
- Explain the terminology related to fundamentals of nursing.
- Describe the roles and responsibilities of a Nurse in the hospital.
- Explain the history of Nursing in the world and in Nepal.
- Describe the different types and functions of hospitals.
- Describe the basic human needs (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs).
- Describe the nursing process.
- Explain the basic nursing measures that can be used in the care of patients/clients.
- Discuss the administration of drugs and the roles and responsibilities of nurses before, during, and after administration.
- Describe the care of a dead body.
Syllabus Table of Contents
Quickly navigate to any unit in the Fundamentals of Nursing Syllabus using the links below.
Course Content Details
Unit 1: Introduction to Nurse and Nursing 5 hrs
- Definition of terms: Nurse and nursing
- Qualities of a Nurse
- Roles and responsibilities of the nurse in the institutional and community settings
- Historical overview of nursing in the world
- Historical overview of nursing in Nepal
- Ethics in nursing: ICN code of ethics
- Client’s right
Unit 2: Introduction to Hospital Nursing 1 hr
- Definition of hospital and its purpose
- Types and functions of hospitals
Unit 3: Basic Needs of the Client 2 hrs
- Definition of basic need
- Maslow’s hierarchy of basic need
- Ways of meeting basic needs:
- Physiological need
- Safety/security need
- Love and belonging need
- Self esteem need
- Self actualization need
Unit 4: Stress and Coping Strategies 3 hrs
- Concept of stress
- Response to stress: Physiological and behavioral responses
- Factors affecting client’s and family’s response to stress
- Sources of stress
- Effect of stress on health
- Coping strategies
- Measures to reduce stress
Unit 5: The Nursing Process 10 hrs
- Nursing process as a scientific approach to nursing
- Benefits of nursing process
- Skills needed in using nursing process: Intellectual, interpersonal and technical
- Steps of nursing process:
- A) Nursing assessment
- Collection of data
- Types and sources of data
- Method of collecting data (interview, nursing health history, physical examination, measurement and laboratory test)
- Documentation of data
- B) Nursing Diagnosis
- Definition
- Nursing diagnosis process
- Statement of nursing diagnosis – e.g. NANDA
- Diagnostic errors
- Difference between nursing diagnosis and medical diagnosis
- Merits and limitations of nursing diagnosis
- C) Planning for Nursing Care
- Purpose of Nursing Care plan
- Establishing priorities
- Establishing goals and expected outcomes
- Consultation with other health care professionals
- Writing of nursing care plan
- D) Implementing Nursing Care
- Implementation Process
- Implementation methods
- Communicating nursing care
- E) Evaluation
- Evaluating goal achievement
- Reassessment of care plan
- A) Nursing assessment
Unit 6: Assessment of the Client’s Health Status 10 hrs
- Importance of client assessment in nursing care
- Vital signs: Definition of vital signs and common vital signs in body:
- Body temperature: Measurement of body temperature, conversion of Celsius degrees into Fahrenheit degrees, Care of clinical thermometer, types of fever and rigor
- Pulse: Characteristics of the normal pulse, factors affecting pulse, sites of taking pulse and variations in pulse
- Respiration: Normal and abnormal respiration, factors affecting respiration, and methods of counting respiration
- Blood pressure: Normal and abnormal blood pressure, factors affecting blood pressure and measurement of blood pressure
- Reporting and recording vital signs
- Height and weight measurements
- Other assessment methods about the client’s health status
- Lab examination: Blood, urine, stool, sputum and other body fluids
- X-ray examinations: Plain and contrast
- Ultrasonography (USG)
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- Computerized tomography scanning (CT scanning)
- Endoscopy
Unit 7: Admission and Discharge from the Hospital 3 hrs
- Admission to hospital
- Circumstances of admission
- Hospital rules related to client’s admission
- Admission procedure
- Nurse-client-family interaction
- Client’s orientation to hospital facilities and routines
- Discharge from the hospital
- Discharge planning
- Termination of nurse-client relationship
- Discharge procedure including instructions for follow-up care
Unit 8: Promoting Comfort, Rest and Sleep 8 hrs
- Meaning of comfort, rest, sleep and exercise
- Factors promoting rest and sleep
- Comfort measures
- Psychological support
- Art and principles of bed making
- Types of bed: Occupied bed, unoccupied bed, cardiac bed, orthopedic bed and postoperative bed
- Positioning the patient in the bed
- Supine position
- Side-lying position
- Prone position
- Fowler’s position
- Pressure sore: Common sites for pressure sore, sign of pressure sore, factors predisposing pressure sore and its prevention and treatment
Unit 9: Meeting Personal Hygiene Needs 8 hrs
- Personal hygiene needs of clients
- Oral hygiene care
- Skin care: Bathroom bath and bed bath, back care and back rub
- Care of hair
- Nail care
- Care of eye, ear and nose
- Care of the feet
- Perineal care
Unit 10: Meeting Safety Needs 8 hrs
- Safety measures: Adequate water, ventilation and lighting and safe floor
- Body mechanics
- Concept and principles of body mechanics
- Normal body alignment
- Use of body mechanics while lifting or moving
- Helping the client in ambulation
- Physical Conditioning in preparation for ambulation
- Assisting the patient out of bed
- Assisting the patient to walk
- Range of motion
- Impaired mobility: Dangers of immobility on body systems
- Physiological effects of exercise on body systems, active and passive exercise, range of motion exercise, breathing and coughing exercise and postural drainage
- Common devices to support and protect a client with impaired mobility
- Pillows
- Mattresses: Air and water mattress
- Bed board
- Foot board
- Cradle
- Sandbags
- Hand Rolls
- Bed Side rails
- Restraints
- Turning and moving a client with impaired mobility
- Turning a client from supine to lateral position
- Transferring a client from bed to chair and vice versa
- Physical law governing the movement in wheel chair
- Clearing the respiratory passage: Cleaning nostrils, positioning and suctioning
Unit 11: Meeting Nutritional Needs 4 hrs
- Nutritional needs of clients
- Fluid and electrolyte balance
- Fluid intake and output
- Restoration of fluid imbalance
- Feeding problems associated with illnesses
- Nurse’s responsibility in meeting the client’s nutritional needs
- Feeding a client through naso-gastric tube
Unit 12: Meeting Elimination Needs 8 hrs
- Common problems in bowel and bladder movement: Constipation, diarrhoea, urinary incontinence and retention
- Nursing responsibly in providing bed pan and urinal
- Catheterization: Purpose and procedure of:
- Non-retention and retention catheterization
- Male and female catheterization
- Precautions in preventing ascending infection and other complications
- Types of catheters and their care
- Measures of relieving constipation: Fluid and food, enema, suppository
- Enema: Purpose, principles and equipment needed for enema
- Types of enema
- Cleansing enema
- Retention enema
- Diagnostic enema: Barium enema
- Nutrient enema
- Sitz bath
- Management of diarrhoeal dehydration: Oral rehydration therapy and IV infusion
Unit 13: Measures Related to Infection Prevention 9 hrs
- Terminologies
- The infection cycle
- Nosocomial infection
- Universal precautions
- Infection prevention measures: Medical and surgical asepsis
- Hand washing, cleaning agents and hand washing technique
- Gowning and gloving techniques
- Isolation technique and precautionary measure while caring the patient
- Preoperative skin preparation
- Decontamination and cleansing of articles
- Methods of disinfecting and sterilizing equipment and supplies
- Handling sterile objects
- Hospital waste management
Unit 14: Hot and Cold Applications 2 hrs
- Definition of hot and cold application
- Purpose, principle and methods of hot and cold applications
- Precautionary measures and nursing responsibilities
Unit 15: Administration of Drugs 6 hrs
- Abbreviation used in administering drug (review)
- Routes of drug administration: Oral, intradermal, subcutaneous intramuscular, intravenous and rectal and vaginal routes
- Topical application
- Instillation of drug into eye, ear and nose
- Intravenous administration of drugs
- Blood transfusion
- Oxygen administration: Purpose, technique and methods of oxygen administration
- Steam and drug inhalation
- Precautions in drug administration
- Role of nurse in drug administration
Unit 16: General and Specific Nursing Care of Surgical Patients 2 hrs
- Pre-operative care
- Post-operative care
Unit 17: First Aid Treatment 6 hrs
- Definition and principles of first Aid
- Emergency conditions and their first aid treatment:
- Drowning, choking,
- Burns, frost bite,
- Wound, fracture, epistaxis, haemorrhage, shock,
- Poisoning,
- Foreign body in ear, nose, eye, throat,
- Snake, insect and dog bites
- Steps in first aid treatment of the victim
- Qualities of a good first-aider
- Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation: Purpose and procedure
Unit 18: Dressing and Bandaging 3 hrs
- Definition of wound, dressing and bandaging
- Wound care
- Types and techniques of dressing
- Types of bandage: Roller and triangular
- Application of bandage
Unit 19: Care of the Dead Body 1 hr
- Cleaning, packing and clearance of the dead body
- Psychological support to the families
Teaching and Evaluation
- Teaching Learning Methods: Interactive teaching, Demonstration and return demonstration, Brainstorming, Self-directed learning, Individual and group assignments and presentations.
- Internal Assessment (20%): Written test, Presentation (group/individual), Written assignment.
- Final Examination (80%): Written examination.
References
- Ackley, B. T. & Ladwig, G. B. (2002). Nursing Diagnosis Handbook. St. Louis: Mosby.
- Augustine, A. Augustine, J. and Chacko, A., (2004). Clinical Nursing Procedure Manual, New Delhi, BI Publication Pvt. Ltd.
- Basavanthappa, B.T., (2003). Fundamentals of Nursing. New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers.
- Berger and Williams (1999). Fundamentals of Nursing. Volume 1 and 2: Stamford Ct, Appleton & Lange.
- Craven, R.F. and Hirule, C.J. (2000). Fundamentals of Nursing. (3rd edition). Sydney: J.B. Lippincot.
- Gulanick, M., Klopp, A., Galanes, S., Myers, J. K., Gradisher, D. & Puzas, M. K. (2003). Nursing Care Plans. St. Louis: Mosby.
- Perry, A. G. & Potter, P. A. (2005). Clinical Nursing Skills and Techniques. St. Louis: Mosby.
- Kozier, B. and Erb, G. (2000). Fundamentals of Nursing: Concepts and Practice (6th ed). USA: Prentice Hall.
- TUTH. (2000). Critical Care Management. Kathmandu: the Author.
- TUTH. (2000). Nursing Procedure Manual. Kathmandu: the Author.
- Verghese A., Shrestha, N.M., Singh, S., Shrestha S., Thapa, S., & Bantawa, S. (2002), Fundamentals of Nursing. Kathmandu: Health Learning Material Center.