Associate of Applied Science Degree
Registered nurses (RNs) provide care to patients, families and communities and also work to promote health, prevent disease and help patients cope with illness. Registered nurses may work in hospitals, physicians’ private offices, nursing homes, clinics, schools, work sites and in patients’ homes under the direction of such health professionals as physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists and others.
When providing direct care, registered nurses observe, assess and record symptoms, reactions and progress; assist physicians during treatments and examinations; administer medications; and assist in convalescence and rehabilitation.
Registered nurses also develop and manage nursing care plans; instruct patients and their families in proper care; and help individuals and groups take steps to improve or maintain their health. Registered nurses are members of a profession and work diligently to uphold the standards of the profession.
Registered nurses are caring and compassionate; are able to accept responsibility and direct, delegate to and/or supervise others; are able to follow orders precisely; and are able to determine when consultation is required. All nurses are patient advocates and health educators.
Program Director
Hope Moon
Extension 7183, Room HS 223U |
Learn More About Registered Nursing Programs
Student Organization
National Student Nurse Association (www.nsna.org)
Accrediting Organization
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National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (www.nlnac.org)
Licensing and/or Certification Organizations
Professional Organizations
Associate Degree Nursing from BGSU-Firelands College
Lorain County Community College (Elyria, Ohio) and Bowling Green State University Firelands College (Huron, Ohio) join in a partnership that brings an associate’s degree (RN) Nursing Program to residents of Erie, Ottawa, Huron and Sandusky counties. Although offered jointly, all nursing courses are held at BGSU FC and the clinical component of the program is completed at health care facilities in Bellevue, Huron, Norwalk or Sandusky. It’s a program that may be completed in as little time as two years, if taken on a full-time basis, and it couldn’t be more convenient for residents of Erie, Ottawa, Huron and Sandusky counties.
Learn more about the BGSU-Firelands Nursing Program
ACCESS to Nursing (LPN to RN Program)
Advanced placement for LPNs is available through the ACCESS to Nursing program. An LPN who qualifies (see the Connections Center for Program Application) must have completed BIOG 121, Anatomy and Physiology I, and PSYH 151, Introduction to Psychology, prior to taking NURS 101--Transition to Registered Nursing. The LPN must complete Nursing 101 with a grade of "C" or better in order to gain advanced placement.
Learn More About ACCESS to Nursing
Associate Degree Nursing Philosophy
The philosophy of the Associate Degree Nursing Program is supported by the college mission. Our goal is to provide a professional nursing program that embodies nursing science with biophysical, psycho-social and general education concepts and principles. We are committed to ensuring excellence in learning and teaching by fostering an environment of active learning. This learning environment will allow students to complete the program with entry-level nursing skills and will promote continual lifelong learning.
We believe that entry-level professional nursing is the art and science of providing compassionate care through collaboration with our clients and with other health care providers in a therapeutic environment. This care is responsive to the physical, psycho-social, spiritual and cultural needs of our clients and their families. The care supports the promotion, restoration, and maintenance of health across the developmental continuum including caring for the client during the dying process.
Evidence-based practice and critical thinking skills form the basis for the application of the nursing process. Standards of Nursing Practice, including the legal scope of nursing, and the Code of Ethics are incorporated throughout the curriculum. A comprehensive planning and evaluation model monitors the teaching-learning process and ensures student attainment of the end-of-program outcomes.
The vision for our program incorporates a consumer driven orientation that utilizes our unique college environment to form mutually beneficial partnerships with our students and our health care community. We will be able to respond to the ever-changing educational and health care needs of our community by using a comprehensive planning and evaluation model.
Associate Degree Organizing Constructs
The nursing curriculum is designed to prepare students to assume the roles of a professional nurse and is consistent with the philosophical statement and educational outcomes of the college and the philosophy and outcomes of the nursing program.
The three major roles of the professional nurse are utilized to provide the major organizing construct for the curriculum design. Provider of care focuses on direct nursing care for clients at various developmental levels in a variety of settings. The manager of care focuses on planning nursing care for a group of clients through prioritizing care and through the delegation and supervision of other nursing personnel. The professional role identifies standards of professional behavior that permeate the other two roles. Each of these roles is conceptualized separately but all three are integrated and operationalized concurrently in each clinical nursing course.
Knowledge base for these roles is gained through selected nursing, biophysical, and psychosocial sciences. Timely acquisition of this knowledge base is provided through prerequisite course requirements. Nursing science is provided in each clinical nursing course and in two separate non-clinical nursing courses.
The clinical courses are organized along a continuum. Learning outcomes and clinical experiences are designed to move the student from dependent to independent problem solving and decision-making activities using critical thinking skills. The experiences flow from simple to complex clinical experiences and from the management of one client to the management of a group of clients. Leveling of nursing course outcomes demonstrates this continuum of learning. Prerequisite nursing course requirements insure acquisition of prerequisite learning.
The provider of care role is the primary focus of each clinical nursing course. Provider of care incorporates the nursing process, therapeutic communication, and establishment of a caring relationship as integrating constructs within each course as students attend to the physical, psychosocial, cultural, and spiritual needs of the client. Each clinical course focuses on different aspects of promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health, including the dying process and death, and builds upon each other through increasing complexity of care and independency of nursing practice.
A clinical capstone nursing course allows the students to demonstrate, with minimum direct supervision, delivery of complex nursing care to clients with multiple health needs. By the completion of the clinical courses, all students will have had the opportunity to care for newborns, children, adults, and older adults in a variety of health care facilities.
The manager of care role provides for nursing care to a group of clients through planning and prioritizing cost effective quality care that is implemented directly by the student or through delegation to other health care personnel. This role includes client advocacy and collaboration with other health professionals. The role of manager of care is introduced in the first level clinical courses and expanded and implemented in the upper level clinical courses. A clinical management capstone nursing course allows the students to demonstrate this manager of care role in providing nursing care to a group of clients.
Becoming a member of the nursing profession assumes safe ethical/legal nursing practice. It also assumes professional nursing behaviors when engaging in the other nursing roles. Demonstration of broad transcultural sensitivity and the ability to communicate effectively are inherent in the roles. Professional nursing role outcomes are identified in each nursing course and professional behaviors are expectations throughout the nursing program.