Adult Health Nursing II: Complex and High Acuity Care
** available as of 06/15/2027
** available as of 06/15/2027
This concept-based course prepares nursing students to plan care for adults with complex, acute, and life-threatening conditions through advanced clinical reasoning across interacting physiological, professional, and psychosocial concepts. Using case-based learning, concept mapping, and unfolding high-acuity scenarios, students examine how multisystem interactions drive patient deterioration, how professional practice addresses systems-level challenges, and how ethical, cultural, and end-of-life considerations shape crisis care. Grounded in Jesuit values of cura personalis and social justice, learners evaluate quality and safety initiatives, healthcare systems, and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, with emphasis on equity, advocacy, and the nurse's role in improving outcomes. By course completion, students will recognize and respond to complex patient deterioration, coordinate care in high-acuity environments, and apply systems-based, ethical, person-centered decision-making to support safe, equitable care for critically ill adults and those facing end-of-life transitions.
Outcomes: Synthesize advanced pathophysiologic and pharmacologic concepts to plan evidence-based nursing care for adults with complex, multisystem, and life-threatening conditions; Analyze clinical data and patterns of deterioration, and safety risks to guide nursing responses for adults with complex health needs; Design interprofessional collaboration and care coordination strategies that support effective teamwork and safe transitions of care in high-acuity and complex clinical environments; Appraise health policies, informatics applications, and organizational structures to propose system-level improvements that enhance equity, efficiency, and patient safety; Integrate ethical principles, psychosocial considerations, and evidence-based palliative approaches to plan compassionate, person-centered care for adults experiencing serious illness and end-of-life transitions.
Outcomes: Synthesize advanced pathophysiologic and pharmacologic concepts to plan evidence-based nursing care for adults with complex, multisystem, and life-threatening conditions; Analyze clinical data and patterns of deterioration, and safety risks to guide nursing responses for adults with complex health needs; Design interprofessional collaboration and care coordination strategies that support effective teamwork and safe transitions of care in high-acuity and complex clinical environments; Appraise health policies, informatics applications, and organizational structures to propose system-level improvements that enhance equity, efficiency, and patient safety; Integrate ethical principles, psychosocial considerations, and evidence-based palliative approaches to plan compassionate, person-centered care for adults experiencing serious illness and end-of-life transitions.