Assignment Outline
Assignments (15% of final grade)
Reflective Assignments
Students will complete brief reflective activities throughout the semester. These assignments are designed to promote self-awareness, critical thinking, professional growth, and deeper learning. Reflection is an important nursing skill that helps students recognize how their experiences, beliefs, emotions, biases, strengths, and areas for growth may influence the care they provide to others. Students are encouraged to be genuinely thoughtful and honest in their responses. Assignments are graded primarily on participation, completion, and depth of reflection rather than the opinions expressed; however, points may be deducted for incomplete or superficial responses or significant writing errors. Reflections also provide an opportunity to strengthen professional written communication skills. Personal information shared in reflective assignments will be treated as confidential and used only for the educational purposes of the course. The goal of these activities is to provide students with intentional opportunities to reflect on their experiences and continue developing into thoughtful, self-aware, and compassionate nurses.
Mental Health Terminology Flashcards
Mental health nursing includes specialized terminology that is essential for understanding psychiatric assessment, symptoms, diagnoses, medications, treatments, and patient care. Throughout the semester, students will create flashcards for 135 intentionally selected mental health terms to strengthen understanding and provide an ongoing study resource for course and ATI exams.
Beginning in Week 2, students will complete 15 flashcards each week using the assigned terms:
Week 2: Terms 1–15
Week 3: Terms 16–30
Week 4: Terms 31–45
Week 5: Terms 46–60
Week 6: Terms 61–75
Week 7: Terms 76–90
Week 8: Terms 91–105
Week 9: Terms 106–120
Week 10: Terms 121–135
Each flashcard should include the term on one side and a definition paraphrased in the student's own words on the other. Definitions must accurately reflect how the term is used in mental health and psychiatric nursing. Flashcards may be handwritten or created electronically. Students should focus on more than memorizing definitions. Many terms have important connections to specific mental health disorders, signs and symptoms, medications, adverse effects, therapeutic interventions, defense mechanisms, ethical principles, or nursing assessments. When a term has an important clinical association, students are expected to understand that connection. For example, knowing the definition of agranulocytosis is not enough; students should also recognize why it is important in psychiatric nursing and which medications are associated with this serious adverse effect. The goal of this assignment is to build psychiatric nursing vocabulary gradually throughout the semester while helping students connect terminology to clinical practice, rather than attempting to memorize a large list immediately before an exam.
Mental Health Care Plan
The Mental Health Care Plan is designed to help you connect the dots between what you are learning in the classroom and the care of a patient experiencing a psychiatric condition. The purpose of this assignment is to strengthen your clinical judgment, critical thinking, psychiatric assessment skills, and ability to apply course concepts to real patient care. Following your BMed clinical experience, select one patient and psychiatric condition to focus on for your care plan. Using information gathered through chart review, interaction with the patient, discussion with clinical staff, and appropriate evidence-based resources, you will complete the Care Plan Worksheet, Mental Status Assessment (MSA) Form, laboratory table, medication tables for five medications, and Mental Health Clinical Debriefing. Your work should demonstrate more than simply reporting information from the medical record. Throughout the assignment, focus on explaining why the information matters, how the findings relate to the patient's psychiatric condition and overall presentation, and how the information influences nursing assessment, priorities, interventions, and care. The goal is to demonstrate your developing ability to think like a nurse and connect assessment findings, diagnoses, medications, laboratory results, patient behaviors, safety concerns, and nursing care.
Quizzes (20% of final grade)
Students will complete an attendance quiz at the beginning of each class and must be present in class to complete the quiz. In addition, a Pre-PrepU and Post-PrepU quiz will be completed in Course Point for each assigned chapter. Pre-PrepU quizzes must be completed prior to class with a Mastery Level of 5 or higher to prepare students for the content that will be discussed and applied during class. Post-PrepU quizzes are completed after class and require a Mastery Level of 8 to reinforce and assess understanding of course content. Quizzes may cover assigned readings as well as content presented by the instructor and may include a variety of question formats. Specific quiz assignments, chapter requirements, and due dates are identified on the course calendar.
ATI quizzes:
Some weeks will have ATI practice quizzes which can be found on the ATI website. They will be due prior to class. The calendar specifies which weeks these will be, and which quiz will be due. Submit a copy of your results in Canvas and the score you submit will correspond to the grade you receive. Feel free to submit these as early as you want, but any received after the deadline will receive a zero. These quizzes will be graded under the “ATI practice quizzes and tickets” section.
In Class Participation (15% of final grade)
This course uses a flipped-classroom format, which means students are expected to come to class prepared to actively participate in learning rather than only listening to lecture. Preparation may include completing assigned readings, reviewing journal articles, watching assigned videos, or completing other pre-class activities. In-class participation may include discussions of assigned readings and journal articles, interactive case studies, vSim activities, simulations, therapeutic communication practice, One Minute Nurse activities and videos, group discussions, and other application-based learning activities. Active participation also includes being engaged and attentive during classmates’ presentations, contributing appropriately to discussions and activities, asking questions, collaborating with peers, and practicing professional communication. Students are expected to arrive prepared and remain actively engaged throughout the class period.
Nursing Grand Rounds Presentation (15% of final grade)
The Nursing Grand Rounds Presentation is designed to strengthen students’ knowledge of mental health disorders while developing professional communication, teaching, and presentation skills. Each student will present a focused 10–15 minute evidence-based presentation on an assigned mental health disorder or psychiatric nursing topic. Presentations will focus on the information nurses need to recognize, assess, communicate with, educate, and safely care for patients experiencing mental health conditions. Teaching and communication are essential nursing skills. Nurses must be able to educate patients and families, share clinical knowledge with fellow nurses, and communicate effectively with the interdisciplinary healthcare team. Students will also examine how social determinants of health, including access to care, housing, finances, trauma, education, culture, social support, and community resources, can influence mental health, treatment, recovery, and patient outcomes. Students will actively participate in classmates’ presentations and complete peer evaluations throughout the semester. Through presenting and learning from peers, students will gain exposure to a broad range of psychiatric conditions while strengthening their ability to communicate evidence-based information. Ultimately, Nursing Grand Rounds connects evidence, education, communication, health equity, and nursing practice to promote high-quality, patient-centered care.
ATI practice tests/quiz’s and tickets in (5% of final grade)
Assigned practice ATI exams with a score of 90% or better will be your “ticket in” to take each of the ATI exams and will be required prior to testing and due according to the course calendar. Submit your completed practice exam and upload to the assignment link in Canvas. Plan accordingly as you will only be able to “attempt” every 24 hours and they are due one or more days in advance of the scheduled exam. If you do not submit a “ticket in” by the exam date/time you will not be permitted to take that exam and will receive a zero on that ATI exam. If you submit the ATI ticket after the due date but before the exam, you will be permitted to take the exam but receive a 0 for the ticket in assignment. Use these to your advantage as preparation for the ATI exams. Thoroughly review them to make sure you understand the questions including both the correct and incorrect answers. ATI Learning RN quizzes mentioned above also fall in this graded section
Mental Health ATI Exams
Mental Health ATI #1 (10% of final grade)
Mental Health ATI #2 (20% of final grade)
Students will complete two comprehensive ATI Mental Health Nursing exams during this course. Unless otherwise instructed, exams will be administered in SCA 011. Students must arrive on time; the testing room doors will close at the scheduled start time. Students who arrive after the doors have closed should not knock or enter, as this may disrupt students who are testing. If you anticipate being late or unable to arrive on time, you must contact the professor prior to the scheduled exam time. If permission is granted to complete the exam at another time, a 25% grade reduction will be applied for missing the scheduled testing time. Students who enter or disrupt the testing room after testing has begun will not be permitted to take the exam and will receive a zero. During testing, only materials provided by the instructor may be used. All personal belongings and electronic devices, including cell phones and smartwatches, must be placed at the front of the classroom for the duration of the exam.
ATI Proficiency & Required Remediation
Students who earn ATI Proficiency Level 1 or Below Level 1 will initially receive a zero for that ATI exam and will be required to complete remediation before the next ATI exam. Required remediation includes a minimum of eight hours of individualized study using Course Point, which adapts learning activities based on the student’s identified knowledge gaps and learning needs. Remediation time is in addition to all regular course assignments, exam preparation, exam tickets, and ATI testing, and time spent completing these requirements does not count toward the required eight hours. Students requiring remediation must meet with the professor to develop and sign an approved remediation contract that includes a specific study schedule and must meet in person with the professor each week to review progress. Students are responsible for scheduling these meetings and completing and tracking all required remediation activities. All remediation must be completed at least one week before the next ATI exam. If a student who earned Level 1 or Below Level 1 on the first ATI exam subsequently achieves Level 2 or higher on the next ATI exam, the original zero will be replaced with the student’s actual score from the first ATI exam. Failure to complete the required remediation as outlined will result in a zero for both ATI exams and failure of the course.
Syllabus Quiz
The course syllabus is an important resource that outlines course expectations, assignments, due dates, grading policies, and requirements for successful completion of the course. Students are responsible for reading and understanding the syllabus and for referring to it throughout the semester when questions arise regarding course expectations or policies. After carefully reviewing the syllabus, students must complete the Syllabus Quiz in Canvas to demonstrate their understanding of course requirements and expectations. The Syllabus Quiz must be successfully completed before the remaining course modules and content will become available in Canvas.