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AS in Nursing
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Earn the associate degree in nursing and prepare to launch your career as a Registered Nurse (RN).
Nursing is one of the most rewarding and in-demand professions. There is a shortage of nurses nationwide, with the number of nurses needed outpacing the number of qualified RNs. RNs provide patient care in hospitals, doctors’ offices, healthcare facilities and home healthcare settings and schools. The associate degree in nursing positions graduates to earn RN licensure as well as to further their nursing education, for example, through an accelerated RN-to-BSN program.
About the Program
Length: 2-3 years
Courses: 72 credits
The associate degree in nursing (ADN) at Sacred Heart University prepares you for the evolving demands of a nursing career. You will establish a strong foundation through a curriculum that combines nursing theory and hands-on clinical experience with the humanities, science, mathematics and social sciences. Major courses in nursing cover a spectrum of healthcare concepts, including:
- Maternal newborn
- Pediatric
- Family care
- Physiological systems
- Psycho-social care
- Nutrition
- Pharmacology
- Leadership and management
- Legal-ethical principles
Faculty members are experienced, caring teachers dedicated to excellence in nursing education, patient care and our mission to develop the whole person.
This program is for part-time, commuter students only.
Clinical Experience
Hands-on experience is essential to nursing education. Nursing classes for the associate degree are held in dedicated skills and simulation labs in the heart of Sacred Heart's main campus. These labs feature interactive mannikins that simulate real-world medical conditions, as well as extensive tools for training.
Clinical rotations place students alongside nurses at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, Stamford Hospital, St. Mary's Hospital and other healthcare facilities throughout southwestern Connecticut. Associate degree nursing students complete 700 hours of clinical experience to prepare them for a nursing career upon graduation.
Outcomes
The associate degree in nursing graduate will:
- Utilize knowledge, skills, and attitudes to demonstrate safe and competent care utilizing evidence-based practice and current standards of nursing care.
- Integrate respectful and professional principles of communication while interacting with members of the multidisciplinary team, clients, and family members.
- Incorporate course concepts while providing holistic care across the lifespan to clients with varied cultural and spiritual backgrounds and demonstrating respect for client rights to participate in care decisions.
- Demonstrate professional responsibility by maintaining competence and practicing within the legal and ethical frameworks of the nursing profession.
- Utilize clinical judgment, critical thinking, and decision-making skills using the nursing process to guide nursing practice.
- Use information technology to provide and manage error-free client care, communicate with clients and health team members, educate, and make critical decisions that optimize client outcomes.
- Apply sound leadership and management skills when prioritizing, delegating, and supervising nursing care.
Review detailed Nursing Program Outcomes.
Curriculum
Nursing Core Curriculum | 33 Credits
In addition to the courses below, a humanities elective course is also required.
Lecture on the investigation of cell structure and function, tissues, skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems. Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion. Nursing students only.
Prerequisite: Co:Take BI-127
3.0 Credit(s)
Laboratory involves investigation of cell structure and function, tissues, skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems. Three hours of laboratory.
Prerequisite: Co: Take BI-126
1.0 Credit(s)
Lecture involves the investigation of the endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and reproductive systems. Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion. Nursing students only.
Prerequisite: Pre: BI-126 BI-127
3.0 Credit(s)
Laboratory involves the investigation of the endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and reproductive systems. Three hours of laboratory.
Prerequisite: Pre: BI 126 and BI-127
1.0 Credit(s)
A course focused on the study of microorganisms with emphasis on morphology, cultivation, genetics of bacteria, viruses and fungi, and infectious diseases caused by these microbes. Three hours of lecture per week. Nursing students only.
Prerequisite: Co: Take BI-162
3.0 Credit(s)
Laboratory work stresses aseptic technique and the microscopic, nutritional, and biochemical characteristics of bacteria. One three-hour laboratory period per week.
Prerequisite: Co: Take BI-161
1.0 Credit(s)
These two seminars are Sacred Heart University's academic signature common core. They are a direct reflection of the University's Mission. These seminars provide students with an understanding of the roots and development of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition as an interdisciplinary, ongoing 2,000 year conversation between the great writers, thinkers, and artists of the Tradition and the cultures in which they lived, asking fundamental questions about God, humanity, nature, and society. Using seminar pedagogy, these seminars ask students to join in this conversation and relate the texts and ideas of the seminars to students own lives and to the world in which they live.
Prerequisite: Take FYS or FYWS 125
3.0 Credit(s)
In this course, students learn about and use the writing process to reflect on and develop their communication skills, with particular attention to the academic and professional forms they will use in and outside of the university.
3.0 Credit(s)
Designed exclusively for Nursing students. Topics include college-level algebra, graphing, basic trigonometric functions, and appropriate applications for the health sciences. It is a problem-solving approach to mathematics.
3.0 Credit(s)
Are there good reasons for acting morally? Are consequences relevant to the morality of actions, or only our intentions? What is the nature of moral virtue? What is a good life? This course provides systematic analysis of such questions, drawing from important works in the history of moral philosophy and engaging with pressing contemporary ethical issues.
3.0 Credit(s)
Introduction to psychology as the science of behavior, focusing on the physiological, cognitive, learning, sociocultural, and psychodynamic bases of behavior.
3.0 Credit(s)
This course examines the human growth and development across the lifespan. Emphasis is on major theories and perspectives as they relate to the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial aspects of development from conception to death. Nursing students only.
Prerequisite: PS-110
3.0 Credit(s)
Credits may be transferred toward the core curriculum if credit and grade minimums are met. Review our associate degree transfer credit policy.
Nursing Major Curriculum | 39 Credits
This course is designed to introduce students to selected concepts and theories which will be used as a foundation throughout the curriculum. Emphasis is placed on the use of the nursing process as well as teaching - learning concepts, basic communication, applied nutritional concepts, pharmacological concepts, dosage calculations, assessment and technical skills, deficits and disorders related to the musculoskeletal and sensory systems and pain management. 60 hours theory; 135 hours clinical
Prerequisite: Take BI-126 BI-127 BI-128 BI-129 MA-105 ý& FYS-125 or FYWS-125
7.0 Credit(s)
This course is designed to offer the student the opportunity to utilize the nursing process in the care of the family during the childbearing and the child-rearing years through adolescence. Concepts of nutrition and pharmacology are integrated throughout the course.
Prerequisite: Take NUR-101
4.0 Credit(s)
This course is designed to offer the student the opportunity to utilize the nursing process to care for patients with disorders and dysfunction in specific physiological systems: gastro-intestinal, reproductive, endocrine and peripheral vascular. Students are offered experience in pre-, peri-, and post-operative nursing care. Concepts of nutrition and pharmacology are integrated throughout the course.
Prerequisite: Take NUR-101
5.0 Credit(s)
This course is designed to offer the student the opportunity to use the nursing process to care for patients with disorders and dysfunctions in specific psychophysiological systems: neurologic and psycho-social. Students are offered experiences in specialized care units. Concepts of nutrition and pharmacology are integrated throughout the course.
Prerequisite: Take Nur-123 and Nur-124 or Nur-122
5.0 Credit(s)
This course is designed to offer the student the opportunity to use the nursing process to care for patients with disorders and dysfunction in specific physiological systems: hepatic-biliary, immune, and hematologic. This course also presents opportunities to care for patients with fluid and electrolyte imbalance, abnormal cell proliferation, and burns, with clinical experience in emergent care offered. Concepts of nutrition and pharmacology are integrated throughout the course.
Prerequisite: Take NUR-123 and NUR-124 or NUR-122
6.0 Credit(s)
This course is designed to offer the student the opportunity to use the nursing process to care for patients with disorders and dysfunctions in specific physiological systems: cardiovascular, pulmonary, and renal. Concepts of nutrition and pharmacology are integrated throughout the course.
Prerequisite: Nur-230 Nur-231
6.0 Credit(s)
This course facilitates student synthesis of total program content and experiences. Students are offered opportunities to fully incorporate the values of the profession, principles of leadership and management, and legal-ethical concepts in their nursing care.
Prerequisite: Take NUR-230 NUR-231
3.0 Credit(s)
Accreditation
The AS in Nursing program is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, Inc. (ACEN). 3343 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 850, Atlanta, GA 30326. (404-975-5000)
The ADN at Sacred Heart University offers a quality nursing education to students looking to jump right into the field. This next generation of skilled RNs will help to meet the urgent demand for nurses in Connecticut and nationwide. Associate degree nurses have long been the backbone of the nursing workforce at the bedside. We are excited to offer this educational option in our College!
Where Can You Go with an Associate Degree in Nursing?
Start your career as an RN while earning a bachelor's degree with SHU.