BS, Nursing
BS, Nursing, Concentration RN to BSN
MS, Nursing
MS, Nursing, Concentration in Family Nurse Practitioner (Special Session Program)
Certificate, Post Master's Nurse Educator
DNP, Doctor of Nursing Practice
Selection for this discipline is designed to support the baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral degree programs in The Valley Foundation School of Nursing. These programs, that offer innovative and varied opportunities, prepare the students to be socially and ethically responsible professional nurses in a variety of community settings. At the Bachelor’s level there are several options: Home Health Care Nurse, Case Manager, Sub-Acute Nurse, Hospital Staff Nurse, Health Clinic Nurse, Advice Nurse, Public Health Nurse, Manger, Administrator, Educator, School Nurse, and Primary Care Nurse. At the Master’s Level the specialties include: Nurse Educator, Nurse Administrator, and Family Nurse Practitioner. The Doctor of Nursing Program, in collaboration with CSU Fresno, focuses on advanced clinical practice, and evidence-based leadership.
The accrediting bodies for the nursing programs are: California Board of Registered Nursing and Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. The School Nurse Credential Program is approved by the Commission for Teacher Credentialing.
The University Library serves as the University’s main resource for this subject. Students and faculty may have access to the libraries at their place of work, e.g. Kaiser and Valley Medical Center Library. The SJSU collection is enhanced by access to materials held the 23 CSU campuses as well as through Interlibrary Loan Services.
The field of Nursing has a well-established literature based on models and theories significantly different from the medical model. However, some medical material is needed in the collection to support nursing. Coordination is needed with: Health Sciences, Business, Gerontology, Sociology (in particular, Family Studies), Education, Psychology, and Government Documents. Courses, such as, Anatomy and Physiology, form the foundation of this program.
The University collection does not generally overlap with the San Jose Public Library collection to a great extent due to the nature of the program. However, the public library has materials in areas that may complement the collection in terms of: medical dictionaries, nursing exam prep guides, nursing career books, and general information on health topics.
Materials are purchased in the format that most effectively delivers the information needed by the discipline for undergraduate and graduate students including doctoral students. Materials will generally be in the English language and will reflect the current information in all areas of Nursing.
The strength of the Nursing collection lies in the number of nursing journals available in either print or electronic full-text. The book collection needs continuing development in the areas of evidence-based nursing, contemporary school nursing, culturally competent nursing practice, educational methodology for nursing, health literacy, and nursing administration. At the same time, materials on medical and nursing basics such as disease, therapies, pharmacy, interventions, and prevention must be kept scrupulously current. Bibliographic access to the journal literature is provided through many Web platform databases (CINAHL, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, PsyInfo, Science Direct, Gale Nursing Resource Center, etc.). Kinesiology, and Occupational Therapy collections supplement the Nursing collection. Students in this major can use the interlibrary loan services to request materials not held by the library.
Future objectives for evaluation of the Nursing collection include the replacement of essential works missing from the collection and withdrawing dated materials with faculty input. However, newer editions of titles, if available, are preferred for adding to the collection. The liaison librarian selects materials primarily in consultation with the Nursing faculty, but also by monitoring the professional resources and reviews of materials in the field.