Nursing

The Course of Study of the Degree Course in Nursing specifically aims to train students in skills that include knowledge (knowing), and aptitude and practical/applicative abilities (know-how). In particular, in training nurses, the objectives are to ensure that the nursing graduate can: -Manage autonomously and responsibly interventions of prevention and care for assisted persons, their family and the community; -Manage nursing care for assisted persons (paediatric, adult and elderly) with acute and chronic respiratory problems, cardiovascular problems, metabolic and rheumatologic problems, acute and chronic renal problems, acute and chronic gastro-intestinal problems, hepatic problems, neurological problems, oncological problems, infectious problems, orthopaedic and traumatologic problems, obstetric/gynaecological problems, haematological pathologies, alterations in behaviour and cognition, situations of psychic discomfort/disturbance; -Verify the need for and manage nursing care in assisted persons with chronic problems and disabilities; -Manage perioperative nursing care; -Guarantee safe administration of therapies and monitor effectiveness; -Carry out the nursing techniques defined by the standards of the Degree Course; -Implement decisional processes on the basis of an assisted person's condition, altered parameter values, laboratory reports and exams; -Manage diagnosis programmes ensuring assisted persons are suitably prepared and following them up; -Integrate nursing care in a project of multidisciplinary cures; -Verify, using structured and systematic techniques and procedures, assisted persons' problems by identifying alterations in functional models (activity and exercise, perception and maintenance of health, nutrition and metabolism, model of elimination, rest and sleep, cognition and perception, concept of self, role and relationships, coping with and management of stress, sexuality and reproduction, values and convictions); -Activate and support the residual capacities of the person to promote adaptation to the limitations and alterations produced by the illness and to the modifications in lifestyle; -Identify people's need for nursing care and reactions correlated to the illness, ongoing treatments, institutionalisation, modifications in everyday activities, perceived quality of life; -Define the priorities of interventions based on care needs, organisational demands and the optimal use of available resources; -Design and realize, collaborating with other professionals, informative and educational interventions to control risk factors for individuals and groups; -Assess the results of the care provided and re-adapt the scheduled nursing based on the evolution of the assisted person's problem; -Manage and organize nursing care for a group of assisted persons (also during the night); -Distinguish need for assistance from need for nursing care, differentiating the contribution of care workers from that of nurses; -Allocate and supervise care activities to supporting staff; -Manage paper and computer records in support of the care; -Document the nursing care provided in accordance with legal and ethical principles; -Ensure assisted persons and important people have relevant, up-to-date information on the state of health; -Arrange conditions to discharge the assisted person, in collaboration with members of the team; -Guarantee continuity of care between different shifts, or different services/establishments; -Use tools of professional integration (meetings, team get-togethers, discussions of cases); -Work as part of a team respecting the duties of the others; -Ensure a physical and psycho-social environment that is efficacious for assisted persons' safety; -Use practices of protection from physical, chemical and biological hazards in workplaces; -Adopt precautions for the manual movement of loads; -Adopt strategies to prevent risk of infection (standard precautions) in hospital and community buildings; -Supervise and monitor the clinical and psycho-social situation of assisted persons, identifying early signs of them worsening; -Implement the interventions necessary to manage acute and/or critical situations; -Identify factors triggering new acute states in chronic assisted persons; -Implement and manage a relationship of help and therapy with users,their family and important persons; -Manage care processes with respect for cultural, ethnic, generational and gender differences; -Support, in collaboration with the team, assisted persons and their family in terminal and mourning phases; -Set up informal care networks to support users and their family in long-term care projects. In relation to these specific training objectives, the training activity, mostly organised in “specific teachings”, guarantees a unitary and,at the same time, interdisciplinary vision of the didactic objectives with insights into knowledge deriving from the characterising disciplinary sectors,also those that are more specifically professionalising and from similar and supplementary disciplinary areas. Pursuant to the Italian Ministerial Decree of 19 February 2009, each teaching module includes an appropriate whole number of course credits, in order to avoid the information being transmitted piecemeal to students. The scheduled didactic forms include lectures, seminars, work and discussion groups on pertinent themes plus simulations designed to pursue the objectives of the Course of Study. The teaching process will make use of modern didactic tools. Traditional teaching will be accompanied by guided internships at specialised public health centres and other establishments of scientific importance and merit to achieve the training objectives, situated in Italy or abroad and bound by specific agreements. This training permits a gradual acquisition of responsibility and professional autonomy, within which General Nursing students acquire the capacity to evaluate the various problems linked to care in the nursing environment, to plan correct nursing care, to fit into group work cooperating with the various figures involved in the care environment in the various contexts of public health and care. Workshops and internships are carried out with the supervision and guidance of professional tutors specially chosen on the basis of a proven ability to communicate, and suitably trained for this position. Workshops and internships are coordinated by a lecturer belonging to the highest training level envisaged for the profiles of the specific class. The study plan includes 20 exams and/or final progress assessments, organised as integrated tests for several classes or coordinated modules. Verification of learning is screened by means of tests, which, as well as traditional oral or written exam procedures, also included is a sequence of tests during the course (self-assessment tests and intermediate interviews), helpful in verifying the knowledge acquired. As regards the written tests, the tools used are: (1) multiple choice or brief written answers, organised on problems of an interdisciplinary nature, followed by exams useful for ascertaining the skills acquired; (2) production of essays on assigned themes and analysis of the activities and results relating to the final exam and also comments on the exercises carried out, and through assessment of the overall profile produced on the basis of predefined criteria. The teaching regulations of the Degree Course lay down, in accordance with the regulation limits, that the amount of the overall time available to students for personal study or for other training of a personal nature shall be no lower than at least 50% of the thirty hours envisaged for each CFU. The Course of Study is structured, monitored, validated and optimised continuously, in order to impart the skills, knowledge and ability foreseen in the curriculum decreed by the regulations in force and in the specific objectives of the Course. These specific training objectives are sustained by a body of lecturers aware of the necessity to use all the institutional tools activated by the competent organisms (NVF and NVA), in order to confirm the quality of the teaching. By means of these tools it is possible to measure improvement in teaching performance in all the various phases that contribute to the taking of a first level degree, in terms of Course of Study, exams, assessment of perceived quality by students, and acquisition of the professional skills that form part of the specific objectives of the Course of Study in question.