This course is designed to alert the student to the central role that diet plays in the growth, development, maintenance and repair of the body. By studying the roles of the six basic nutrients in the daily diet, the student practical nurse will be able to make safe and economical choices regarding foods for patients. Through discussion of the nursing process and Daily Food Guides, the student develops a basic ability in the selection and planning of diets necessary for normal development and maintenance of health. This course presents an overview of one's growth and development throughout the life cycle. During each life stage, one's general physical, psychosocial, and sexual development is discussed and integrated with Erikson's developmental tasks and Freud's developmental stages.
Emphasis is placed in identifying the norms found in each phase of development.
The effects of changing environments and hereditary factors on one's development are examined. This course is the study of the normal structure and function of the adult body beginning at the cellular level and continuing through the integumentary, skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems. The interaction between the physical and physiological processes, and the need to maintain homeostasis are stressed. Basic planes, positions, and directional terms are presented. This is a course of correlated theory, as well as laboratory and clinical practice, planned to present concepts basic to clinical nursing.