This course is only open to Post-LPN BN program students. NURS 436 and Professor approval is required. Program Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0 required.
Please consult the Program summary for the most recent information relating to course registration and start dates. Online course materials cannot be accessed before your course contract start date.
Nursing 435: Professional Practice in Mental Health Promotion This 16-week paced online course provides opportunities to integrate theory and develop further skills related to mental health promotion with a focus on individuals, families and groups experiencing mental health alterations. Consideration will be given to mental health promotion with vulnerable aggregates and recognition of psychiatric mental health disorders that emerge across the lifespan. Opportunities to apply nursing assessment skills, such as mental status examination, and nursing intervention strategies such as therapeutic communication will be facilitated. A current snapshot of the field of psychiatric nursing, including both current practice and future research possibilities will be presented. A major focus of the course is a mental health promotion project. Nursing 435 is a six-credit course.
NURS 435 provides you with practice opportunities using a variety of online tools and experiential activities. Some of these practice opportunities will use video conferencing. Video conferencing allows course participants (students and instructors) to see and hear one another using a computer equipped with a speaker/microphone and camera. Unit 1 includes a learning activity that guides you through set-up and use of the selected video conferencing platform utilized. This activity also provides you with an opportunity to use video conferencing to meet your instructor and classmates “face to face” in real-time.
There are several times during this course when you will be required to participate in mandatory real-time video conference learning activities. The exact dates and times for these mandatory real-time experiential learning activities will be set at the beginning of the course with the course instructor. Participation in these mandatory real-time experiential learning activities is a graded element of the course. A pass in the mandatory real-time experiential learning activities is required to pass NURS 435.
Outline
Section 1: Overview of Mental Health Alterations
Unit 1 – Introductions: Getting to Know One Another
Unit 2 – Mental Health Disorders and Societal Issues
Section 2: Assessment, Screening, and Relational Practice
Unit 3 – Assessment Skills and Screening Tools and Assignment 1 Quiz
Unit 4 – Affective Change: Understanding the Lived Experience of Mental Illness
Unit 5 – Relational Practice, Interviewing Skills, History Taking and Functional Assessment
Section 3: Interventions
Unit 6 – Psychopharmacology, Electro Convulsive Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Neuroplasticity and Legal Considerations
Section 4: Community Health and Mental Health Promotion Project
Unit 7 – Assessing and Analyzing Impact of the Determinants of Health on Mental Health Treatment, Supports, and Recovery. Assignment 2 – Community Mental Health Promotion Project
Section 5: Reflections on Mental Health Practice and Me
Unit 8 – Attitudes toward Mental Illness, Stigma, Vulnerable Populations
Unit 9 – Continued Self-Assessment and Self-Directed Learning Related to Knowledge Gaps in Community Mental Health Practice
Video conferencing Seminars (Synchronous)
Seminar 1 – Unit 2 – Video conferencing Set-Up and Mental Health Disorders and Societal Issues (3 hours)
Seminar 2 – Unit 4 – The Lived Experience of Mental Illness (3 hours)
Seminar 3 – What we have learned and how will our nursing practice change? (3 hours)
Skills Demonstrations
Skills Demonstration 1 – Unit 3 – Mental Status Examination Skills Demonstration – with study-buddy in video conferencing seminar
Skills Demonstration 2 – Unit 5 – Suicide Assessment or Intimate Partner Violence Assessment and Relational Practice Skills Demonstration – with an instructor in a video conferencing platform
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of NURS 435, students will achieve or exceed the following learning outcomes:
Critically examine the unmet mental health needs, across the lifespan, of clients, families, and groups within the community;
Uncover personal bias and prejudice by reflecting on your attitudes, beliefs, and values related to mental health/illness;
Explain mental health conditions related to mood, thought, and behaviour;
Assess and know how to intervene with individuals presenting with acute or chronic mental illness;
Demonstrate skills in psychosocial nursing assessment and interviewing;
Demonstrate relational practice skills;
Understand the legal processes and ethical dilemmas related to mental health nursing practice;
Reflect upon personal and societal stigma and barriers that exist within the field of mental health;
Sensitize to the societal impact of mental illness arising from the potential association between mental illness and homelessness, incarceration and family violence;
Analyze the implications of addictions, family violence, and suicide for individuals, families, and the community;
Actively incorporate mental health promotion into practice in the workplace as well as with vulnerable aggregates;
Assess the impact of a mental illness in your community; and
Identify and evaluate the resources available to meet the mental health needs of people in your community.
Comply with current College of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CRNA) Entry-to-Practice Competencies.
Evaluation
NURS 435 is graded on a Pass/Fail basis. To receive credit for NURS 435, all practice and assignment requirements must be successfully completed and submitted. . All papers submitted must follow the current American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines for referencing.
The required assignments are as follows:
Activity
Weight
Quiz (80% to Pass)
Pass/Fail
Health and Mental Health Promotion Project
Pass/Fail
Real-Time Seminars
Pass/Fail
Skills Demonstrations
Pass/Fail
Forum Participation
Pass/Fail
Post LPN-BN Clinical Evaluation Tool
Pass/Fail
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
Materials
W. Austin and M.A. Boyd (Eds.), Psychiatric & mental health nursing for Canadian practice (4th ed.)Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer. (eText)
In addition, multimedia learning resources (print, audio, and video) are part of many learning activities in the course. Many of these learning resources are Open Educational Resources (OER). OER are online resources available to all without cost.
Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized study counterparts.