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NUR 110: Introduction to Nursing

Designed to support the course of the same name.

In this Guide

nurses training on simulated patient

  • Find Articles - Best databases for finding journal articles and tips for using them.
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  • APA Style Guide - Formatting hints and examples.

Terms and Definitions

Nurse: A person educated and licensed in the practice of nursing; one who is concerned with “the diagnosis and treatment of human responses to actual or potential health problems” (American Nurses Association). The practice of the nurse includes data collection, diagnosis, planning, treatment, and evaluation within the framework of the nurse's singular concern with the patient's response to the problem, rather than to the problem itself. The concerns of the nurse are thus broader and less discrete and circumscribed than the traditional concerns of medicine...

Nurse. (2012). In MosbyMosby's dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health professions. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Health Sciences. Retrieved from Credo Reference.

nurse working on patient

Cognitive Therapy: Any of the various methods of treating mental and emotional disorders that help a person change attitudes, perceptions, and patterns of thinking, from rational to realistic thoughts about self and situations. Therapeutic approaches include behavior therapy, existential therapy, Gestalt therapy, and transactional analysis.

Cognitive therapy. (2012). In MosbyMosby's dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health professions. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Health Sciences. Retrieved from Credo Reference.

Holistic Health Care: A system of comprehensive or total patient care that considers the physical, emotional, social, economic, and spiritual needs of the person; his or her response to illness; and the effect of the illness on the ability to meet self-care needs. Holistic nursing is the modern nursing practice that expresses this philosophy of care. Also called comprehensive care.

Holistic Health Care. (2012). In MosbyMosby's dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health professions. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Health Sciences. Retrieved from Credo Reference.

Infection Control: In 2007 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised the Isolation Precautions issued in 1996 to prevent transmission of infectious agents. This guideline incorporates two tiers: Standard Precautions and Transmission-Based Precautions. Standard Precautions, which include the major attributes of Universal Precautions and body substance isolation, are the primary strategy for prevention of pathogen transmission and are designed for use in the care of all patients in health care facilities, regardless of the patient's diagnosis or risk of having an infection...

Infection control. (2012). In Mosby, Mosby's dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health professions. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Health Sciences. Retrieved from Credo Reference.

Informed Consent: Permission obtained from a patient to perform a specific test or procedure. Informed consent is required before most invasive procedures are performed and before a patient is admitted to a research study. The document used must be written in a language understood by the patient and be dated and signed by the patient and at least one witness. Signed consent should be obtained by the person performing the procedure. Included in the document are clear, rational statements that describe the procedure or test. Also required is a statement that care will not be withheld if the patient does not consent...

Informed consent. (2012). In Mosby, Mosby's dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health professions. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Health Sciences. Retrieved from Credo Reference.

Science News Literacy and the Scientific Method

Know how to verify legitimate scientific claims, and debunk junk science.

The Problem of Bad Science:Simple model of scientific method

"'Bad Science' Is Everywhere. What Can We Do to Stop Its Spread?" 

"When research evidence is misleading" (2013)

"Trust: The Need for Public Understanding of How Science Works."

Addressing the Problem:

The Center for Open Science - Providing an infrastructure for detailed reporting scientific experiments and and the promotion of reproducible discoveries.

Unpaywall - Browser plugin that allows legal and free access to full texts of peer reviewed journal articles. Best when paired with the Open Access Button - Free, legal research articles and data delivered instantly or automatically requested from authors.

Little Maxima - Virtual Reality News Reader

Evaluating sources using the ABC test - Authority, Bias, and Currency. (video)

More on the Scientific Method. From Dziak, M. (2014). Scientific method. Salem Press Encyclopedia Of Science.