Bachelor of Nursing at University of Florida

The College of Nursing prepares baccalaureate nurses to care, lead and inspire. Nursing courses include classroom and laboratory activities correlated with supervised clinical experiences. Students may be required to travel outside of Gainesville for selected clinical experiences.

The curriculum is logically organized from simple to complex so that students acquire the cognitive, affective, and technical competencies of a professional nurse. Students are required to demonstrate competence at each semester in sequence to progress to more advanced concepts and skills. Knowledge from general education courses, nursing pre-professional courses, and introductory nursing courses is integrated and refined as student progress through increasingly complex theoretical nursing content and clinical application courses.

Courses in the first two semesters focus on foundational knowledge and principles of personalized nursing care. Students gain an understanding of the context of contemporary nursing practice, the meaning of professionalism, ethical and legal guidelines, professional values, and standards of professional nursing practice. Course content and concepts are aligned with clinical experiences to develop beginning clinical reasoning. Students acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to provide evidence-based, safe, cost-effective quality care to achieve optimal health outcomes.

Courses in the final two semesters build upon prior learning and are characterized by increased complexity in content and outcomes. Students enhance clinical reasoning and critical thinking through nursing practice in a variety of settings for individuals across the lifespan, families and other groups, and communities. Learning experiences are designed to enable students to demonstrate leadership, interprofessional collaboration, and advocacy skills that improve the health of diverse individuals and populations. In the final semester, students participate in a project to develop an innovative solution for a problem or issue relevant to professional nursing.

Progression

Students must earn minimum grades of C in all required nursing courses and maintain a minimum 2.0 GPA every semester while enrolled. Students may repeat only one required nursing course. Students earning less than a C in any required nursing course may repeat that course only once and on a space-available basis. Students who do not achieve a passing grade on their second attempt in a course will be dismissed from the nursing program. Students may withdraw only once from any required nursing course.

Students are expected to comply with college health policy requirements.

Students in the health professions are held to standards of conduct that exceed those usually expected of university students. Consequently, nursing students are required to demonstrate safe practice in the care of patients and to exercise appropriate judgment as beginning-level professionals, including appropriate demeanor and appearance. Students must adhere to the standards of conduct outlined in the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics and the Florida Nurse Practice Act in addition to the University of Florida College of Nursing handbook. Students can be removed from the nursing curriculum, and/or any college-sponsored programs or organizations, based on violation of professional conduct.

Bachelor of Science

The junior/senior-level Traditional BSN program is four semesters long and provides learning experiences in a variety of clinical settings.

The major in nursing prepares graduates as generalists to provide holistic care that addresses the healthcare needs of diverse individuals, families, communities and populations across the lifespan. Nursing practice is built on nursing knowledge, theory and research. Graduates will translate, integrate and apply knowledge that leads to improvements in patient outcomes.

Before Graduating Students Must

• Achieve a passing grade of C or higher in all required courses.
• Pre-licensure student must achieve a score of 850 on the Health Education Systems Incorporated (HESI) RN Exit Examination.
• Complete requirements for the baccalaureate degree, as determined by faculty.

Students in the Major Will Learn to

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

Content

1. Apply critical thinking to synthesize knowledge grounded in liberal education and nursing, in the practice of professional nursing in the global community.
2. Utilize knowledge of health care regulation to advocate for policy change to improve health care systems and professional nursing practice.
3. Utilize health promotion, health maintenance, and disease prevention strategies across settings to improve the health of diverse individuals and populations across the lifespan.

Critical Thinking

1. Integrate evidence-based findings in decision-making in the practice of professional nursing.
2. Appraise current evidence to evaluate health care safety and quality improvement initiatives for individuals and groups.
3. Analyze information from health care technology systems to apply evidence that will guide nursing practice.
4. Illustrate the importance of advocacy in the improvements in nursing practice and throughout the healthcare system.
5. Demonstrate professional competence and values reflective of professional nursing standards and mutual respect within a global society.

Communication

1. Collaborate with the healthcare team and clients to provide safe and cost effective high quality health care.
2. Demonstrate professional communication, collaboration and documentation with healthcare teams to support improvement in patient health outcomes.
3. Build therapeutic alliance with patients and families to provide personalized care.

Curriculum Map

I = Introduced; R = Reinforced; A = Assessed

Assessment Types

• Faculty evaluation
• Achievement of minimum benchmark score on Health Education Systems, Inc. (HESI) Exam
• Exit Survey (Skyfactor)
• Passing score on the National Council Licensure Examination