The Associate’s Degree in Nursing prepares students to attain licensure as registered nurses who provide holistic, culturally safe healthcare in any context for all patients and clients, and particularly for under-served populations. This program respects indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing and prepares all nurses to recognize and embrace their role as advocates for the health and wellness of Alaska Natives and any other individuals or communities that they serve.

Prior college-level coursework (per APU transfer policies) can satisfy degree requirements, including Foundational Studies and pre-requisites.

Learning Outcomes

As a graduate, a student will earn an Associate Degree in Nursing with demonstrated achievement in APU’s Core Competencies:

1. Effective Communication [EC]: Demonstrate the ability to get one’s point across in writing, presentations, and organizations in order to share information, teach others, and foster collaboration
2. Critical Thinking [CT]: Demonstrate the ability to compute, analyze, make sense of information or data, and reach reasoned conclusions cognizant of possible bias or fallacies
3. Cultural & Historical Perspective [CH]: Demonstrate the ability to effectively consider tradition and heritage in relation to decision-making in a world shaped by diverse cultures and abiding histories
4. Scientific Inquiry [SI]: Demonstrate the ability to reach verifiable conclusions based on documented observations, findings, and recognized methods in order to know how things work in our world
5. Ethical Engagement [EE]: Demonstrate ability to raise needed questions and apply ethical and effective problem-framing and problem-solving to make things better

In addition to the Core Competencies, the program is designed to realize the following End-of-Program Student Learning Outcomes [with integration of APU Essential Competencies noted in brackets]:

1. Cultural Competency and Cultural Safety: Integrate knowledge from the humanities, natural sciences, behavioral sciences, and other ways of knowing into a culturally safe nursing practice.  This nursing practice is demonstrated through advocating for patients, families, and groups in ways that promote self-determination, integrity, and growth as human beings. [CH, EC, CT, EE, SI]
2. Professional Communication and Collaboration:  Integrate principles of verbal and nonverbal communication, practice standards and professional accountability to collaborate with healthcare team members in the delivery of culturally safe, effective, high-quality, relationship-centered care of individuals, families and groups. [EC, CH, EE]
3. Professional Nursing Care: Implement nursing practice decisions utilizing principles of critical thinking, nursing knowledge and substantiated evidence in the delivery of culturally safe, effective, high-quality care and health promotion of individuals, families and groups. [CT, SI, EE]
4. Evidence-Based Assessment: Examine the evidence that underlies nursing practice to challenge the status quo, question underlying assumptions, and offer new insights to improve the quality of culturally safe care of individuals, families and groups. [CT, SI, EE, CH]
5. Personal and Social Responsibility: Implement one’s role as a nurse in ways that reflect cultural safety, integrity, responsibility, ethical practices, critical thinking and an evolving identity as a nurse who practices within dynamic cultural contexts.  This is demonstrated through a commitment to both traditional and academic ways of knowing, evidence-based practice, caring, and advocacy, in the delivery of culturally safe, effective, high-quality care and health promotion of individuals, families and groups. [EC, EE, SI, CH, CT]

Admissions

Candidates will apply initially to the BS in Health Sciences program, indicating interest in the pre-nursing concentration. Students interested in continuing nursing studies after taking pre-requisite courses will apply for internal transfer into the ADN program (external transfer students may be accepted on a space available basis). Students will be selected for admission to the nursing program based on a systematic application review process and recommendations from nursing and non-nursing faculty and Student Enrollment Services staff. A grade of “C” (defined as: C+ or C) or better must be earned in all course requirements. A course must be repeated if a grade lower than “C” is earned.

The general requirements for admission to undergraduate programs at APU are found in the Admissions section of the catalog. In addition, there are supplemental requirements for the ADN program as follows. Students who are accepted into the program must submit evidence of:

• Cleared background check in compliance with ICPA standards;
• Drug test negative of all federally controlled substances;
• Successful completion of mandatory training for compliance with Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act;
• Successful completion of mandatory training for compliance with occupational safety and health administration requirements;
• Current Basic Life Support (BLS) for Healthcare Providers certification from the American Heart Association or other approved alternate providers;
• Current physical screening with a health provider to confirm that students can safely participate in clinical activities;
• Up to date evidence of screening for tuberculosis;
• Up to date evidence of required immunizations:
  • Current Tetanus/Diptheria/Pertussis (Tdap)
  • Current Measles/Mumps/Rubella (MMR)
  • Current Varicella (chicken pox)
  • Current and complete Hepatitis B series
  • Current seasonal influenza (must be updated yearly)

Students must submit evidence within three weeks of receiving their admission to the ADN program; otherwise, students will not be allowed to register nor continue in the program. It is necessary to maintain current immunizations, tuberculosis screening, CPR, HIPAA and OSHA for clinical placement. Additional compliance requirements may be required based on the requirements set forward by each clinical site. These requirements can include, but are not limited to: site orientations, additional background checks, additional vaccinations, medical screenings, computer or EHR trainings, other screenings such as drug screenings, etc. Information will be submitted to a credential & compliance management service to facilitate easier tracking and to alert students when items need to be renewed.

Coronavirus Response - With approval from ACEN, the State of Alaska Board of Nursing, and APU, the ADN in Nursing will be running a modified program of study for the 2020-2021 Academic Year to disrupt the spread of coronavirus. This change affects only the Fall 2020 ADN cohort at time of publishing, but is subject to change dependent on the global pandemic. Information about ACEN’s general approval of such changes can be found at http://www.acenursing.org. For information on the specific changes applied to the 2020-2021 Academic Year, please reach out to the Institute of Health and Wellness at healthandwellness@alaskapacific.edu.