Acute Presentations in Nursing Practice

This module is specifically designed to build upon the knowledge, skills and competencies gained from the following 1st and 2nd year modules: Biological Science for Fundamental Nursing Knowledge and Skills, Fundamental Nursing Knowledge and Skills, Biological Science for Nursing the Adult with Major Illness and Nursing Care of the Adult with Major Illness.

The module will orientate the student nurse toward integrating skills from ostensibly separate disciplines into the meta discipline of clinical practice. The module will particularly attend to the integration of biological, medical and clinical science with specialist nursing knowledge and skills in recognition of both the science and art of nursing.

The module provides the student with a specialist instruction and discussion of themes particularly related to emergency, high dependency and critical care settings. The module seeks to utilize problem solving,case study and scenario based approaches to the construction of clinical decision making. The module seeks to contribute to the development of the general nursing student as a scientifically and clinically reasoned actor within their domain of practice. The module draws on broad influences and is necessarily wide ranging and fluid in both its content and delivery. As such, it will instruct and be instructed by modular content across much of the third-year curriculum.

1. Critically discuss and apply clinical nursing and scientific reasoning skills to acute care settings and situations

2. Critically analyse common medical and nursing emergencies from a biological perspective and integrate this knowledge into a nursing skills orientation

3. Recognise an acutely deteriorating patient and plan care accordingly

4. Critically discuss the rationale for nursing and biological theory underpinning nursing care

5. Accurately perform the clinical skills necessary for the nursing care of the person in acute and high dependency settings

6. Critically discuss the stages of the nursing process and apply a dynamic, problem-solving approach to care

7. Critically analyse the pharmacology of relevant drugs and biological therapies used in acute and high dependency settings and issues attendant to their safe administration

8. Develop key, measurable, competency-based nursing skills relevant to emergency settings