Course Descriptions

Didactic Courses

NUR 800 Practice Wisdom (Métis) and Formal Evidence: The Dialectic between Knowledge and Engagement
This course provides a foundation for building the scholarship of advanced practice in trans-cultural  nursing and community health. Sources of knowledge and procedures for acquiring knowledge, both formal and informal, will be studied for the power to positively influence health outcomes. Evidence will be evaluated for relevance to practical experience based on context-specific (emic) positions and for rigor in empirical procedures based in context-free (etic) perspectives. Utilizing selected evidence suited to particular transcultural issues, practice modes building on both local expertise and professional research will be analyzed through systematic reflection. Students will begin developing original practice models suited to their transcultural interests and relevant to concerns of people marginalized by dominant health systems.

NUR 802 Making Room at the Table: Applying Ethics to Ending Hunger and Sharing Abundance
This course in applied ethics focuses on health as a human right with emphasis on the development of skills in community building as citizen professionals. From the perspective that hoarding abundance compromises the health of everyone, the course facilitates human connections that go beyond charity to acting from a basis of shared risk and solidarity.

NUR 803 Transcultural Cosmologies and a Global Perspective
This course explores the intersection of Western scientific principles and cultural cosmologies. Cycles, rhythms, and patterns of nature are correlated to a Western understanding of natural science. These interrelationships are then viewed through the lens of nursing theory, research, and practice. A wider horizon of meaning derived from a broad understanding of diverse methods and healing practices allows for conceptual models of nursing care to emerge that are responsive to diverse cultural expressions of health and illness.

NUR 804 Mobilizing Sustainable Models of Human Betterment: Participatory Action in Community Building and Health Care
This course focuses on communities as the foundation of health by recognizing strength in community residents and models that utilize the qualitative methods of participatory action that minimize the expert role in planning. Globalization as a model of neoliberalism will be critiqued, and a perspective of building solidarity among local communities will be emphasized. Skill building in participatory action processes will occur.

NUR 805 Ways of Knowing: Synthesizing Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence
Drawing on insights from complexity science, this course examines the diverse ways of knowing that guide professional practice. It focuses on the comparative analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. Students will critically reflect on the data, unpacking it and uncovering the meaning behind the data that supports their practice. Comparing the positivistic and interpretive stance, the students will examine relevant knowledge and ways of knowing that provide scholarly grounding for their professional expertise.

NUR 806 Ecology of Human Suffering in a World of Extremes
This course examines the cumulative illness-producing effects of inequities that are embedded in structures of social privilege and disadvantage. Human suffering is viewed as neither coincidental nor  inevitable, but related to exploitation and organized cruelty within social systems. Epidemiological approaches are used to trace patterns of disease and illness that strike population groups and communities unequally around the world. Health status appraisal, risk analysis, and the levels of structural violence in society will be examined using culturally responsive data collection methods, resource accessibility, and the application of appropriate technology.

NUR 807 Magic, Medicine, and Healing Spirits: Transcultural Perspectives on Health Care
This course explores transcultural healing and caring modalities including the integration of traditional and scientific healing ceremonies and beliefs. Healing traditions among indigenous peoples will be examined, including spiritual forces that promote health and cause illness. The use of medicinal plants for healing in indigenous traditions will be compared to contemporary views of health and healing in bio-scientific models of curing.

Practica

Practica in the DNP include structured immersion experiences led and facilitated by faculty, and student initiated, self-directed practice experiences mentored by faculty. All practica are designed to develop students’ individual practice interests and skills.

Practica are taken concurrently when students enroll in a didactic course. Guidelines for the integration of DNP practica into a plan of study include the following:

• Practica will be completed incrementally throughout the DNP program.

• Students may register for varying practica and credits each term, including summer

• Practicum hours may be completed at the student’s job site, if approved by a supervisor and the nursing faculty adviser, but the practicum work must go beyond the student’s current job responsibilities and be consistent with the DNP program expected student outcomes.

• Practica must be led or mentored by either a nursing faculty member or another approved mentor who is an “expert” within a community, population group, or has expert knowledge related to a particular phenomenon of interest to the student.

• Students will develop objectives for practicum experiences in collaboration with faculty advisers and keep a record of practicum work in a professional portfolio.

• Students must register for enough post-baccalaureate practicum credits to reach a total of 1,000 practicum hours to earn the DNP degree. This will be evaluated when students are admitted to the DNP program.

The following are examples of directed study practica and immersion practicum experiences developed and led by faculty in the DNP program:

NUR 701 – NUR 704 Directed Study Practicum (0.25-1.00 credits, 36-144 practicum hours)
Directed study practica build upon advanced nursing competencies developed at the master’s level to expand and deepen knowledge supporting expert nursing practice. In the practica students will integrate and synthesize knowledge from emic wisdom with the biophysical, psychosocial, analytical, and organizational sciences as the basis for the highest level of transcultural nursing practice. Students are expected to enhance practice and/or systems management skills, including clinical reasoning, and advance to a higher level of expertise in transcultural nursing and community health. As such, directed study practica are individualized to students’ specific areas of interest and are planned by students in consultation with a major faculty adviser, cultural guides, and other mentors in the communities in which they wish to carry out the practicum.

NUR 712 Culture Care on the Pine Ridge Reservation (0.5 course credits, 72 practicum hours)
In this practicum students live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in western South Dakota, where they have opportunities to gain knowledge about health inequities and structural violence from the viewpoint of persons living with poverty and cultural devastation. The strengths of the traditional Lakota culture emerge as Lakota elders and tribal leaders guide students into life on the reservation. Healing care systems and beliefs about health and illness are compared and contrasted with Western biomedical care and the politics of health care provided through the federal government’s Indian Health Service (IHS) are examined.

NUR 742 Dia de los Muertos—Location: Mexico (0.5 course credits, 72 practicum hours)
In this practicum students are immersed in the ancient tradition of honoring the children and ancestors during the celebration of the Day of the Dead in Mexico. Living in Cuernavaca or Oaxaca, Mexico, students are guided by indigenous participants in rituals and ceremonies that invite the return of ancestors who have died. Globalization of the holiday and its modifications through culture contact are revealed.

NUR 723 Ancient Healing Practices—Location: England (0.75 course credits, 108 practicum hours)
This practicum immerses students in ancient settings of healing in England—the healing waters of the Roman baths and the healing energy of and the sacred sites of ancient Celts. The importance of a connection to the land and cosmos is embodied in the origins of modern-day nursing. A visit to Homerton Hospital in Hackney, London, exemplifies transcultural care with a diverse population of immigrants and asylum seekers.

NUR 752 Health Care on the Mexican–U.S. Border (0.5 course credits 72 practicum hours)
This study abroad opportunity explores issues of poverty, public health, environment, immigration, and globalization in the context of displaced communities. Participants meet face to face with immigrants, refugees, border patrol agents, factory workers, and community leaders on both sides of the US–Mexican border to listen and learn about their health concerns, economic development, human rights struggles, and efforts to achieve social justice.

NUR 734 Health and Community Building—Location: Guatemala (1.0 course credits, 144 practicum hours)
This practicum explores health as a human right. Analysis will focus on how widening gaps in the distribution of wealth diminishes the health of all members of society. Learning is based on immersion experiences in Guatemala City and highland Mayan communities. Observation, presentations by cultural guides, and classroom discussions will reflect on health and social justice for marginalized people. Participation in traditional back-strap weaving will guide reflection on the relationship of health and cultural continuity. Spanish language school is an option in this practicum.

NUR 762 A Practicum Exploring Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Achievement in Sub-Saharan Africa (.5 course credit, 72 practicum hours)
Students focus on the development of leadership skills that promote Millennium Development Goal (MDG) achievement in sub-Saharan Africa. Practicum activities are designed to engage health care professionals and members of local communities in best practices for achieving MDG targets by 2015. Structured lectures and discussions supplement practice and encourage students to explore sociocultural determinants of health and illness—economic realities, cultural values and gender roles, education levels, governmental policies, access to technology, and the competence of health care providers—in relation to the unequal burdens of suffering and disease evident in Africa.

NUR 794 Culture Care in a World of Extreme—Location: Republic of Namibia (1.0 course credits, 144 practicum hours)
Emphasis is on transcultural nursing leadership in partnership with persons and communities. Participants experience the challenges care systems face in providing health care within  geographically and economically extreme contexts where isolation, poverty, and virulent disease are epidemic. Participant-observation among Ju/’hoansi communities in the Nyae Nyae Conservancy provide opportunities to collaborate and practice with nurses and other health care professionals striving to provide culturally safe and effective health care to one of the world’s “first peoples.”

NUR 782 Poverty and Community Building in the Inner City—Location: Minneapolis, Minn. (0.5 course credits, 72 practicum hours)
An immersion in the inner city of Minneapolis provides experience with the rich diversity in the inner city. Concepts of advanced practice in public health nursing are applied among the community of people who visit the Augsburg Central Nursing Center, a community-based nursing service. In addition to participation at the Nursing Center, students explore issues of health and social reality with cultural guides from the inner city populations and with nurses who work effectively with them.

Seminars

NUR 811 First-Year Seminar, NUR 821 Second-Year Seminar, NUR 831 Third-Year Seminar, and NUR 841 Final Seminar (0.25 credits per term while enrolled in the DNP)
Students are required to register for a seminar each term they are in the DNP program. The purpose of DNP seminars is to integrate diverse practicum experiences with students’ individual practice interests. As such, the seminars provide a venue for students to test ideas for their practice with faculty and peers and receive relevant feedback and support. Through dialogue in the seminars, students work on their DNP capstone projects and professional portfolios. The last seminar (NUR 841) culminates in the successful completion of a scholarly capstone project that advances nursing practice. Students register for NUR 841 during the term in which they will be completing and presenting their final doctoral project, along with their professional portfolios. The professional portfolio documents the process of theory and research integration and the emerging practice innovations the student is implementing.

Elective courses

Elective courses are selected in collaboration with faculty advisers. Students may choose relevant elective graduate courses (at the 500 level or above) to add depth and breadth to their nursing specialty focus. These credits may be chosen from within the Department of Nursing or from a number of interdisciplinary programs and courses, including those offered by Master of Arts in Leadership, Master of Social Work, Master of Business Administration, Economics, and the Master of Arts in Education. This allows students to take optimal advantage of the richness and diversity of opportunities afforded through Augsburg College graduate programs.