Center for Allied Health and Nursing Education - Top Nursing School in Tampa Florida

Licensed Practical Nurses - Tampa Florida LPN Program

About the Practical Nursing Program | Admission Requirements | Clinical Affiliations | Available Schedules | Accreditations

Best Tampa LPN Programs & LPN Training

Overview
The Practical Nursing program prepares students to become licensed practical nurses. Students learn to perform tasks and undertake responsibilities core to the provision of providing nursing care, including health counseling, support and restorative care. The program is comprehensive and includes both theory and clinical components to enable program graduates to develop the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary to practice confidently and safely in a rapidly changing health care system. The Practical Nursing program is organized and based on the humanistic model -- every person must be recognized as a unique being, more than and different from a sum of their integrated parts. The program consists of 1,501 hours of education and is arranged in terms to provide students with a gradual, step-by-step, simple to complex, learning environment.

Program Mission
The United States is in the midst of a shortage in healthcare providers that is expected to intensify. This problem is both a supply and a demand shortage, combining a broad range of issues that include: steep population growth in several states, limited enrollment opportunities for students at educational institutions offering healthcare training, an aging workforce and a baby boom bubble that will require intense health care services. The Practical Nursing program was established to help bridge this labor gap by ensuring a pipeline of highly educated practical nurses that are able to join the health team and contribute to meeting the total needs of the patient.

Program Philosophy

The faculty believes that proper nursing care requires the nurse to understand the physical, emotional, social, economic, and spiritual needs of the patient in an ever changing, complex society. Nursing education must incorporate the following components as described:

Nursing is a humanistic art and science which incorporates evidence-based principles from the biological, physical and behavioral sciences. The nurse cooperates with members of the health care team to assess health needs and assists the client to perform those activities which contribute to health. The goal of nursing is to assist the client in adaptation throughout the life cycle. The nurse contributes to this goal through the use of the critical thinking inclusive of nursing process and evidence-based research.

Humans are unique and have ever-changing needs. They are comprised of biological, spiritual, psychosocial, and cultural variables, which are fluid, constantly interacting with the changing environment. The environment includes focal, contextual and residual stimuli which impact their lives. As individuals move through the life span, inhabiting different phases of development, wellness and illness, and roles as individuals, members of families, groups, and cultures, nurses assess, plan, prioritize, implement and modify care based on the best evidence to promote human adaptation.

Health is a vibrant and dynamic phenomenon that results from cognator and regulator responses to environmental stimuli leading to adaptation. The optimally functioning state of psychosocial, biological, cultural, and spiritual realities of health are objectively measured by biological and behavioral measures, and subjectively measured by the human’s perceived realities. Nurses view health needs through a humanistic and holistic context, and provide interventions based on caring, understanding, and best evidence to promote risk reduction, and for symptom/illness management.

Environment is a confluence of social, scientific, economic, legal, political, cultural, physical, and psychological factors. Internal and external environmental stressors, the focal, contextual and residual stimuli influence human adaptation as individuals interact with their environment on a daily basis. Effective nursing care requires understanding and embracing the stimuli surrounding and affecting their patients to better develop and implement holistic care plans.

The teaching-learning process is essential to the practice of nursing. Teaching and learning can be capitalized through a gradual, step-by-step, simple to complex process that correlates through concurrent didactic instruction. In addition, teaching and learning in nursing requires extensive “hands-on” practice in a variety of clinical settings. The process of teaching and learning is fostered by an open, receptive and democratic environment which nurtures the individual's efforts and motivation to learn. Teaching and learning are influenced by the individual differences in ability and background of its participants. All teaching and learning should bring individuals closer to self-actualization. The teaching and learning process is effective when based on best evidence and desirable changes are validated in the learner’s competence.

Program Objectives

Students in the Practical Nursing program shall acquire the following competencies:

Apply the nursing process as a systematic problem solving method to provide effective care to culturally diverse individuals, families, and groups.
Use nursing theory and theory from other disciplines as a basis for the nursing process to promote health and healing.
Use therapeutic nursing to achieve optimal level of health.
Demonstrate safety and effectiveness in performance of nursing skills.
Employ critical thinking to provide the highest level of nursing care from patient assessment to evaluation.
Utilize ethical principles to resolve ethical dilemmas in a health care environment.
Accept responsibility and accountability for adhering to the high standards of nursing practice as mandated by the nurse practice act.
Implement strategies to stimulate and support change needed to improve the quality of health care practice.
Adapt care in consideration of the client’s values, customs, culture, religion and/or beliefs.
Be prepared to take the NCLEX-PN licensing examination.
Display responsible behaviors and a commitment to excellence in interactions with patients, families, colleagues, and employing organizations.
Demonstrate understanding of boundaries and the legal scope of professional practice as a licensed practical nurse.
Utilize professional values and standards as a basis for ethical nursing practice.
Communicate effectively using interpersonal skills combined with information technology.

The Center has divided its curriculum into four terms. Each one focuses and builds on concepts, skills, and outcomes learned in the prior quarter. Each course in a term includes specific knowledge and skills that are required to be mastered for course completion. The Practical Nursing program consists of 1,501 hours of classroom and clinical education. Theory and clinical experiences are conducted concurrently throughout the program. The theoretical and clinical work is basically equally distributed.

The class schedule and hours of classroom/ clinical/laboratory instruction and practice for the Practical Nursing program are set prior to the start of each quarter. Students are typically in class between 7 and 8 hours each day and the typical hours for the program are 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. This structure allows The Center to provide a balanced and well-delivered program. Classes (theory, clinical and laboratory) are expected to meet for their entire scheduled times.

At the end of the first quarter, students will have completed

the necessary courses and achieved the required competencies to take the licensure exam to become an articulated nursing assistant in Florida. Students not holding a current nursing assistant license are encouraged to successfully complete the nursing assistant licensing requirements.