Undergraduate Program

BS in Nursing (BSN)

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN NURSING (BSN) PROGRAM

Health Aid College of Nursing and Health Sciences (HACN&HS) offers an advanced, state-of-the-art undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program that

  • Incorporates international teaching, learning, and qualifications for both the national and international requirements for baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice.

This four-year Bachelor of Science program in Nursing is offered through the Health Aid College of Nursing and Health Sciences (HACN&HS) provides:

  • The unique opportunity to study and work alongside Doctor of Physical Therapy and Public Health students, faculty and other allied health care professionals.
  • A program built upon a core foundation in sciences and humanities and a core nursing-specific curriculum.
  • Learning opportunities where you will have both classroom and simulation training in our Simulation Center and direct patient-care, clinical focused learning in hospital settings.
  • Student progression from classroom focus to a more clinical patient-care focus by the second year onwards.
  • Opportunities for research as throughout the program, students will have an opportunity to work on faculty and/or student research projects.

The final year will require the completion of a Senior Elective Project.

SIGNIFICANCE OF NURSING AS A PROFESSION

Having a career as a nurse and in the healthcare field, provides you with:

  • Exciting opportunities to truly make a difference in the lives of local residents and communities
  • Make a difference in lives at national and international levels.

WHAT DO NURSES DO?

The nurses play a vital role in leading the societies toward better health, in promoting healthy lifestyles, healthy workplaces, and healthy communities.

  • Nurses lead change and positively impact the health of Pakistani people and beyond
  • Nurses provide care in various settings locally and globally
  • Nurses are employed in a variety of settings besides the traditional hospital setting:
    • Administrative or management positions
    • Education and Research
    • Consulting
    • Community and public health centers
    • Social work
    • Specialization areas
    • Governmental and non-governmental settings

PREPARING YOU FOR A PROFESSION IN NURSING

In addition to the core undergraduate curriculum that prepares you to be a HACN&HS graduate, The college will prepare you for the nursing profession through a rigorous academic program.

Courses with a science focus:

  • Biochemistry, Microbiology, Anatomy & Physiology, Pathophysiology, Pharmacology

Courses in social and behavioral sciences:

  • Sociology, Psychology, Pakistan Studies, Islamic Studies, English

Courses with a research focus:

  • Biostatistics, Research Methods, Data Analysis for Quality Improvement

Courses that focus on Nursing Science include:

  • Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Applied Nutrition
  • Fundamentals of Nursing, Medical-Surgical Nursing, Pediatric Nursing, Obstetric Nursing, Psychiatric Nursing, Community Health Nursing, and Health Assessment

After Graduating with a BSN Degree

  • Begin your career! Nurses are in high demand locally and globally.
  • The BSN program provides a foundation for graduate education in nursing and other health-related fields.
  • Serves as a stimulus for continuing professional development and life-long learning.

BSN LEARNING OUTCOMES

  1. To transform nursing by providing an experiential model of nursing education designed to keep pace with the rapidly changing healthcare environment as evidenced by the mandate to reform the healthcare system in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

  2. To present new models of nursing care that
    • Emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration within the healthcare team
    • Focuses on health promotion and disease prevention
    • Integrates holistic care across the health system and into the community
    • Provides nursing care and health education in a culturally competent and compassionate manner
    • Utilizes technology to enhance nursing practice

  3. To provide a learning environment and clinical experience that will intellectually challenge the student and one that will train and equip nurses with the appropriate skills to apply research and to ensure the delivery of high-quality, safe, effective, and evidence-based nursing care.

  4. To foster lifelong learning and open critical thinking through integrating new knowledge and skills with the previous training and experience of the students.

PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING

Nursing is a humanistic science grounded in the liberal arts and sciences. This foundation when integrated with evidence-based nursing provides the basis of professional practice.

Professional practice is the provision of care in primary, secondary, and tertiary health care settings. The fusion of the liberal arts/sciences and nursing science establishes the basis for a systematic approach to holistic collaborative care based on best practice. Best practice includes an awareness of cultural, ethical, social, policy and regulatory environments. Graduates of the nursing programs accomplish professional practice through their roles as leaders, consultants, educators and researchers.

The faculty has a responsibility to provide a nursing education through a variety of pedagogical approaches with a strong emphasis on technological strategies. Students learn optimally in an atmosphere immersed in humanism, innovation and technology. The environment is flexible, dynamic and student-centered allowing for a free exchange of ideas.

The faculty believes in lifelong learning and modeling leadership within the profession. They demonstrate this through their practice, research and participation in scholarly activities.

Nursing encompasses clinical practice, education, research, consultation, leadership, management, and service to the profession and the community. It involves individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities as clients. The profession must consider the human and physical environments that interact with these clients, who may have health conditions that range from wellness to illness. Nursing activities must, therefore, include health promotion and maintenance, intervention and treatment, rehabilitation and restoration, and palliation.

BSN COMPETENCY DEFINITIONS

  • Clinical/Professional Judgment
    Clinical/Professional Judgment is the outcome of critical thinking in nursing practice. Clinical/Professional Judgment incorporates decision-making processes that involve evidence and reasoning to facilitate the evaluation of outcomes and goals.

  • Communication
    Communication is a complex, ongoing, interactive process and forms the basis for building interpersonal relationships. Communication includes listening, as well as verbal, nonverbal, written and electronic communication skills. The professional nurse appropriately adapts the communication style to the audience, considering such elements as culture, education, and environment.

  • Evidence-Based Care
    The professional nurse generalist utilizes multiple ways of knowing, including personal, ethical, scientific and esthetic in the delivery of care to individuals, families, communities or populations to address their health needs. The provision of care may be direct or indirect in partnership with the patient and the inter-professional healthcare team to affect a positive health outcome.

  • Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
    Health care directed toward high-level wellness through processes that encourage alteration of personal habits or the environment in which people live. It occurs after health stability is present and assumes disease prevention and health maintenance as prerequisites or by products.

  • Leadership/Management
    The leader/manager is responsible for human, fiscal, and material resources and exhibits specific behaviors and strategies, such as delegation, collaboration, negotiation, and coordination to influence individuals and groups toward goal setting and achievement.

  • Technology Utilization
    Technology utilization includes current and developing methods and equipment that lead to discovery, retrieval, and utilization of information to enhance nursing practice. These technologies may include, but are not limited to equipment that may provide assessment data, support anatomic and physiologic function, utilize data from an electronic health record, and provide access to most current evidence to support practice standards.

  • Professional Valuing/Caring
    Values are defined as beliefs or ideas to which an individual is committed and which guide behavior. Values include advocacy, altruism, ethical reasoning, equality, autonomy, human dignity, diversity, morality, social justice, and integrity. Caring encompasses both the nurse’s empathy for and connection with the patient, and the nurse’s ability to translate these affective characteristics into compassionate, culturally sensitive care for each patient’s diverse needs.

  • Professional Role Development
    Role development is the process of acquiring knowledge and experiences that will encourage graduates to embrace lifelong learning incorporate professionalism and accountability into their practices and identify with the values of the profession.

  • Global Perspectives
    Global healthcare knowledge includes an understanding of the effects of the culturally diverse community from individual to global perspectives on such areas as disease transmission, violence, health policy, and healthcare economics.

  • Health Care Systems and Policy
    The professional nurse generalist understands the organization and environment in which nursing and health care is provided. This content and practice includes the dynamic relationships among institutions and organizations, public policy, economic and political factors, legal and regulatory processes, and funding mechanisms.

  • Teaching/Learning
    Teaching/Learning is a dynamic, lifelong interactive process that has formal and informal elements. Formal teaching/learning occurs between two or more people, including a teacher and a learner. It consists of a set of planned, purposeful activities that assist the learner(s) in the acquisition of knowledge, attitudes, and/or the performance of new skills. Informal teaching/learning process may involve one or more persons who may or may not be identified as a teacher or a learner. It consists of unplanned, spontaneous activities that enable a person to acquire new knowledge, attitudes or skills.

BSN ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

  • Matric Science (Physics, Chemistry & Biology as compulsory subjects)
  • FSc (Pre-Medical) with 50% minimum marks
  • 50% minimum marks in the HACN&HS internal entry test is a prerequisite for admission

BSN DURATION

  • 4 years

BSN SCHEME OF STUDIES