Curriculum
Baccalaureate Program Objectives Leveled by Year
The faculty has defined behaviors that each student must achieve before progressing to the next level. The objectives are leveled by year: level 1 references freshman year; level 2 references sophomore year, and so on. Students are encouraged to refer to these objectives at the mid-point of the semester and again at the end of the semester to actively participate in the learning and self-evaluation processes.
End of Program. Synthesize knowledge from the humanities and the natural and social sciences as the basis for continuing personal, intellectual, social, and professional development.
Level 3. Apply knowledge from the humanities and the natural and social sciences in the development of the role of nurse in patient care situations in acute care settings.
Level 2. Articulate the relevance of knowledge from the humanities and the natural and social sciences to the evolving role of the nurse.
Level 1. Demonstrate knowledge of the interrelationship of the humanities and the natural and social sciences as a basis for the development of nursing practice and as a source of personal development.
End of Program. As a generalist, use theoretical and scientific bases for nursing to deliver nursing care to clients as individuals, families, communities, and organizations in a variety of settings at any level of wellness, illness, and risk.
Level 3. Apply theoretical and scientific bases for nursing practice related to individuals and families with potential or actual health-related problems in acute care settings.
Level 2. Demonstrate the use of theoretical and scientific bases for nursing practice related to risk assessment and health promotion activities to individuals within selected communities and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Identify theoretical and scientific bases for nursing practice.
End of Program. Apply research findings to evaluate and improve nursing care and the healthcare system.
Level 3. Appraise the relevance, quality, and applicability of research in decision making related to patient care.
Level 2. Discuss the research implications for various nursing practice environments.
Level 1. Recognize the relationship between research and nursing practice.
End of Program. Assume responsibility for providing nursing care in a collaborative relationship with individuals and groups in a variety of settings.
Level 3. Participate in providing nursing care in a collaborative relationship with individuals and families in complex healthcare settings.
Level 2. Participate in providing nursing care in a collaborative relationship with individuals, selected communities, and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Observe the process of how nurses collaborate with individuals.
End of Program. Participate in collaborative relationships with colleagues through referral, consultation, planning, and evaluation.
Level 3. Initiate a collaborative relationship with colleagues to facilitate consultation, referrals, planning, and evaluation in a complex healthcare setting.
Level 2. Participate in a collaborative relationship with colleagues by consultation, planning, and evaluating selected communities and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Identify various interdisciplinary roles in healthcare.
End of Program. Demonstrate leadership and management skills through direction and support of clients and colleagues as individuals, families, communities, and organizations.
Level 3. Integrate an understanding of leadership and management skills through the direction and support of colleagues, individuals, and families in acute care settings.
Level 2. Provide peer support and management of individual clients in selected communities and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Define leadership and management skills using professional organizations as a model.
End of Program. Participate as an agent of change in scientific, social, and political action for the advancement of research, healthcare, and policy at any level from local to international.
Level 3. Initiate change for the advancement of research and healthcare in an acute care setting.
Level 2. Participate as an agent of change to effect modification in health promotion behavior and level of wellness in selected local communities and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Recognize the need for change related to healthcare reform and policymaking at the national level.
End of Program. Communicate coherently, comprehensively, and systematically in written and oral forms as they pertain to nursing care, collaboration, research, and policy.
Level 3. Analyze written and oral communication patterns and recommend modification if necessary as they pertain to nursing care, collaboration, and research.
Level 2. Demonstrate therapeutic and professional oral communication with individuals, groups, and peers in selected local communities and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Demonstrate effective written communication skills.
End of Program. Perform clinical skills appropriate to generalist nursing practice, with competence and judgment within specific settings.
Level 3. Demonstrate advanced nursing skills with competence and judgment in acute care settings.
Level 2. Demonstrate and expected level of judgment in basic nursing skills in selected communities and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Identify components of professional nursing practice.
BSN Undergraduate Curriculum Organizing Framework and Vision
Class of 2015 and Beyond (Accelerated BSN Class of December 2014 and Beyond)
Learn more about Penn Nursing's mission, vision, and values at https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/about/mission-and-values/.
Penn’s baccalaureate curriculum brings structure to the School’s mission, vision, and values by centering on the primacy of nursing practice situated in caring relationships that facilitate health and healing. The baccalaureate curriculum builds on this conceptualization of nursing as it moves students toward increasingly contextualized understandings of individuals, families, communities, and populations living with health and illness. It also moves students into increasingly complex situations and care environments as they experience the dynamic nature of nursing’s embeddedness in health care systems, social structures, and society.
The baccalaureate curriculum concentrates on four intersecting core themes that characterize the complex and contextual nature of nursing practice: engagement, inquiry, judgment, and voice. The competencies derived from this framework are not intended to be achieved in a sequential manner. Rather, this framework explicates competencies that are fluid, adapt to various learning experiences when presented in the curriculum, and essential to the formation of a graduate nurse's professional identity. The application of these themes is demonstrated in the following examples:
Engagement: The student understands the relationships among:
- Caring relationships with individuals, families, and patient populations
- Collegial intra-disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary collaborative relationships
- Observer and participant in policies and politics
- Situational advocacy and civic commitment to social and political change
Inquiry: The student understands the relationships among:
- Knowledge use, acquisition, and development
- Scientific ways of knowing patients and families and multi-dimensional and contextual ways of knowing
- Knowledge and implementation of humanistic understandings in practice and research
- Evidence-based practices and the social and political processes of practice with less clear scientific rationales
- Knowledge of how to use and manipulate technological information systems to acquire meaningful data
- Knowledge use and ongoing clinical knowledge development
- Measures of quality in clinical care environments
Judgment: The student understands the relationships among:
- Acquisition of knowledge and skill and the integration of both within relational practices with individuals, families, communities, populations, and healthcare systems
- Knowledge of individuals and families and collective knowledge about communities, populations, and systems
- Core nursing knowledge and integrated knowledge
- Situated judgment and clinical know-how
Voice: The student understands the relationships among:
- Observer, advocate, and moral agent
- Facilitation of patient and family learning and advocacy affecting social and political practices
- Informal methods of dialogue, discourse, and debate and those necessary for formal writing and publication and for joining a community of scholars
- Vision for self and the profession
Requirements for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree
| Code | Title | Course Units |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Nursing Major Requirements | 5 | |
Critical Writing Seminar Requirement | ||
Language Requirement | ||
| Distribution Requirements by Sector | 6 | |
Arts and Letters | ||
Society and Social Structures | ||
Histories and Traditions | ||
Global and Cultural Studies | ||
Reasoning, Systems, and Relationships | ||
Free Elective | ||
| Nursing Major | 29.5 | |
| Total Course Units | 40.5 | |
More information including individual course requirements can be found in the BSN Handbook.
Students who are receiving their second bachelor's degree in nursing (known as "second degree students" or "BSN/MSN students") are not required to complete the liberal arts component while at Penn. All plans of study include an 11 course unit waiver for liberal arts requirements because students who have already completed one undergraduate degree are exempt from all sector requirements, the language requirement, the writing requirement, and free electives. If you have questions regarding your plan of study or the requirements specific to your program, please reach out to the Office of Academic Affairs: http://www.nursing.upenn.edu/student-services/advising/.