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Canyon College

online Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Certificate Program at Canyon College

COURSE SYLLABUS: Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Certificate Program

Instructor:

Richard Pessagno, MSN, APRN, BC - Vita | E-mail
  • Board Certified Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist
  • Board Certified Group Psychotherapist
  • Board Certified Grief Therapist
Introduction:

Welcome to the Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Certificate Program offered by Canyon College.

This program provides the registered nurse interested in psychiatric-mental health nursing, with the opportunity to develop the basic knowledge and the skill for the field of psychiatric nursing. This certificate course will provide registered nurses with the basic knowledge needed to begin work in the field of mental health nursing.

Psychiatric nurses apply nursing science to practice through caring for patients in a wide variety of clinical settings. Psychiatric nurses use biopsychosocial principles to provide skilled nursing interventions for patients in acute care-hospitals, outpatient settings, schools environments, home care settings, community health settings.

This certificate course is formatted for 90 contact hours of self-paced study. Upon completion of the course, participants will be awarded a Certificate in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing, as well as 6 semester hours of credit from the College. The cost of the program is $900.

This course is designed to be self-paced. An authoritative text is used and communication with the course instructor is by e-mail, telephone, fax, and/or US postal mail. Participants can utilize all of any one of these vehicles to communicate with the instructor.

The course is presented in six modules. The modules are:
Module I:Introduction
Module II:Cultural Aspects of PMH Care
Module III:Interventions
Module IV:Clinical Practice Settings
Module V:Effective Management of PMH patients
Module VI:Special Populations
Following the completion of each module, the participant complete a written assignment and/or an exam. Assignments are to email to the instructor and a hard copy is to be mailed to the instructor. Students can contact the instructor for a mailing address. The examination can be accessed by notifying the instructor, who will in turn notify the college to permit the student access to the exam.

The certificate program is a self-paced, study course. Participants will be given eighteen (18) months to complete the entire program. You may study at your own pace, and can progress through the course as quickly as you like.

Contact with the Instructor:

Students may contact the instructor at any time. Students may contact the instructor via e-mail, USPS, or telephone. The instructor is available to any student for questions, clarifications or support. Students are encouraged to contact the instructor when necessary. Soon after registering, students should contact the instructor. Upon contacting the instructor, students will be provided with the instructors’ address and telephone number.

Name: Richard Pessagno
Email: rpessagn@canyoncollege.edu
Address: Contact instructor via e-mail for address
Phone: Contact instructor via e-mail for telephone number

Texts:    Online Bookstore

This certificate program requires two textbooks.

Essentials of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, 3rd edition, by Mary Townsend.
F. A. Davis Company, October 2004. ISBN-13: 9780803612679
ISBN: 0803612672

The Instructor:

Richard Pessagno, MSN, APRN, BC is an advance practice psychiatric nurse with over eighteen years of professional experience. He has clinical experience in psychiatric nursing, AIDS care, hospice, medical-surgical nursing and perioperative nursing. His psychiatric nursing experience includes skill working within inpatient, partial hospital programs, home care, outpatient and psychiatric consultation-liaison nursing. He is nationally board certified as a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist, as a group psychotherapist and as a grief therapist.

Grading:

Grading for the program is structured as follows:

11 Written Assignments, 10 points each= 110 points
3 (50 question) Objective Exams, 20 points each= 60 points
1 Independent Study Project= 130 points

Students must achieve a grade of C or better to receive the Certificate.

The grading scale is as follows: 300 points total for the certificate program

270-300 points = A
240-269 points = B
210-239 points = C
Below 209 = Non-pass

Writing Assignments:

There are several written assignments associated with the program. Each of the assignments are are noted within each module listed for the Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Certificate Program. Students are expected to used APA format when writing their papers. Students should e-mail each assignment to the instructor and mail one hard copy of each assignment to the instructor as well via USPS.

Exam:

The exams will consist of 50 multiple choice and true/false questions. The exams explore basic nursing knowledge used in general psychiatric nursing practice. To access the examinations, students are to contact the instructor first. The instructor will then contact the college, to grant the student access to the testing area. After the student has completed the exam, the instructor will grade the exam and forward the grade to the student.

Independent Study Project in Psychiatric Nursing:

Each student will be expected to complete an independent study module. The student is encouraged to be as creative as possible with regard to the independent study project. The project should focus an area of interest for the student, within the practice arena of psychiatric nursing. Students may satisfy this module by completing a case study, a scholarly paper, a annotated bibliography of the current literature in psychiatric nursing, or a teaching project related to psychiatric nursing. Students must have their study projects approved by the instructor before beginning work on the project.

Beginning Your Studies:

Students may begin their studies, as soon as they receive textbooks. The course syllabus with reading assignments is listed below. Students are to contact the instructor soon after enrollment via e-mail.

On-line Message Boards:

Canyon College has provided an on-line message board for the participants of this course. The message board is a vehicle whereby the instructor can post news, current events, new findings related to the study content, etc. All currently enrolled students may at any time post to the message board. This includes questions or information related to the course and the course content.

Hours of Study/Instruction:

90 hours of Continuing Education Credit; 6 Semester credits

The Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Certificate Program has been approved for 90 contact hours of continuing education by the American Institute of Healthcare Professionals, through it's division, "The Center for Continuing Professional Education". Graduates of the certificate program can contact AIHCP to receive a formal certificate detailing achievement of contact hours. Only students who successfully complete the program are eligible to receive a certificate of contact hours. Students should contact the instructor regarding how to obtain their CEU certificate.

Program has been approved by:
The American Institute of Healthcare Professionals, Inc.
1477 Tripodi Circle
Niles, Ohio 44446
Fax: 330-652-7575
www.aihcp.org

Overall Course Objectives: Independent Study Project in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing

The student is to complete a project as their final step in the certificate process.

Students may:
1.) Write a paper, present
2.) Develop a case study
3.) Develop a clinical newsletter for their clinical setting.
4.) Write an annotated bibliography of psychiatric nursing articles
5.) Develop a patient teaching project related to psychiatric nursing
6.) Develop an orientation program for your clinical setting.
7.) Develop a new psychoeduational group offering for your setting.
8.) Develop an orientation experience for a student nurse on your unit.

All topics must be approved by the instructor. Students are to be as creative as possible. Integrate the learning concepts addressed during the certificate program. Contact the instructor for further instructor and approval of your topic. Completed projects are to be mailed directly to the instructor.

Upon successful completion of all requirements, students will be awarded their certificates.