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REGISTERED NURSING PROGRAM: ESSENTIAL PERFORMANCE STANDARDS
Applicants to the Nursing program at Lakeland Community College must
possess sufficient physical, motor, intellectual, emotional, social and
communication skills to provide for consistent safe and effective client
care. To assure that the student is able to fulfill these qualities,
all applicants must meet the following performance standards.
1. Critical Thinking: The student must be able to comprehend verbal
and written information as well as to measure, calculate, reason, analyze
and synthesize data in order to think critically. Critical thinking is
an important component of judgment which is required in the clinical
area.
2. Interpersonal Skills: The student must have the ability to communicate
sensitively and efficiently both verbally and in writing. This ability
is required such that the student can interact effectively with clients,
families, and others from a variety of social, emotional, cultural
and intellectual backgrounds.
3. Communication: The student must be able to communicate clearly and
effectively in English, both in verbal and written forms to communicate
nursing actions, interpret client responses, initiate client education,
document, and interpret orders. The student must also be able to
communicate verbally in an assertive and a sensitive manner with
clients, peers,
and professionals.
4. Mobility and Maneuverability: The student must be able to move
about independently, bend, squat and turn in small work spaces
and have no
limitations on the ability to perform CPR or to lift at least thirty-five
pounds. The student must also have fine motor coordination in order
to manipulate equipment and materials.
5. Hearing Capacity: The student must have sufficient hearing such
that the student can hear and respond to breath and heart sounds,
cries for
help, alarms, emergency signals and overhead codes.
6. Visual Capacity: The student must have vision sufficient that
it is possible to read thermometers, client charts, flowsheets
and monitors,
medication records, medication cups and syringes. The student
must also
be able to observe and assess client health status, skin color
and integrity.
7. Tactile Capacity: The student must have the tactile capacity
to perform palpation for administration of intramuscular
injections, starting intravenous
infusions and venipuncture. The student must also be able
to identify changes in client condition by touch and by recognition
of changes
in skin temperature and moisture.
Reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities will
be considered on an individual basis. The student must be able to independently
perform in a consistently safe and effective manner.
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The mission of the Department of Nursing is to
educate, enrich and empower nursing students to assume the caring
roles and responsibilities of a registered nurse. The faculty identifies
the art of caring as the essence of nursing practice. This caring
philosophy of nursing is based on the Greek concept of Caritas
implying a commitment to ideals outside of oneself. True caring
is manifested by attainment of qualities of competence, professionalism,
altruism and growth. These goals represent the values of the faculty
and are set forth for each student to achieve as an ongoing progressive
process and serve as the characteristics of the graduate. 
The faculty strives to model true caring for
students in order to maximize their educational experience and
instill a love of nursing as a profession.
Lakeland nursing program graduates are held in
high regard by area health care facilities. The demand for nurses,
coupled with a quality education, results in employment for our
graduates. 
