Technical Standards

Registered Nurse and Practical Nurse Programs


Technical Standards are defined by the Owens Community College Nursing Faculty as the functional abilities determined to be essential to the practice of nursing.

The purpose of this document is to notify prospective nursing students of these technical standards to enable them to make an informed decision regarding enrollment in the nursing program at Owens Community College.

The delivery of safe, effective nursing care requires that students be able to perform functions related to the Technical Standards. The inability of a student to perform these functions may result in the student being unable to meet course objectives and to progress in the nursing program. Additionally if a student is unable to perform these required functions, the student may pose a risk of harm to the patient(s) for whom care is provided.

If you have a disability or acquire one, you may be entitled to receive individualized services and/or accommodations intended to assure you an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from the program. To receive more information or to apply for services, please contact the Disability Resource Center at (567) 661-7007 or email disability@owens.edu. English as a second language is not considered a disability and as such the student will not be given extra time for any timed activities.

All prospective and current Nursing students must be able to meet these standards, with or without reasonable accommodations.

Technical Standards Chart

The following chart outlines the Technical Standards and the related functions required by the Owens Community College Nursing Programs:

Standard Description Example of Activities related to
Functional Abilities
(but not limited to the following)
Physical: Motor
  • Strength, mobility, flexibility, stamina and coordination necessary to perform client care activities and emergency procedures.
  • Gross and fine motor skills necessary to perform psychomotor skills and to provide safe, effective care.
  • Push, pull, lift, or support various weights utilizing safe and proper body mechanics.
  • Stand, bend, walk, and/or sit for 7-12 hours to perform safe clinical practice.
Gross Motor Skills

  • Move within a confined space
  • Sit and maintain balance
  • Stand and maintain balance
  • Reach above shoulders (e.g. supplies)
  • Reach below waist

Fine Motor Skills

  • Pick objects with hands
  • Grasp small objects with hands (e.g. catheter tubing)
  • Key/type (use of computer keyboard)
  • Pinch/manipulate or otherwise work with fingers
  • Twist objects/knobs with hands (e.g. mechanical equipment)
  • Squeeze with fingers (e.g. emptying catheter bag)

Physical Endurance

  • Stand for long period of time (e.g. at a client-side during therapeutic procedure)
  • Sustain repetitive movements (e.g. CPR)
  • Maintain physical tolerance (work an entire shift, 8-12 hrs.)

Physical Strength

  • Push and pull (e.g. position patients), Support patient’s weight (e.g. ambulating clients), Lift objects and clients (e.g. lift a child), position pts. (up to 50 lbs.)
  • Defend self against a combative client
  • Carry equipment/supplies
  • Use upper body strength (e.g. perform CPR)
  • Squeeze with hands (e.g. operate fire extinguisher)
  • Transfer client from bed to wheelchair, wheelchair to bed, etc.

Mobility

  • Stand, Sit, Flex
  • Lift (up to 50 lbs.)
  • Twist, Reach
  • Bend
  • Stoop, kneel/squat
  • Move quickly (e.g. respond to an emergency)
  • Climb stairs
  • Walk
Physical:
Sensory (with or without corrective appliances)
The student is expected to possess functional use of the senses of vision, hearing, touch and smell.

All data received by the senses must be integrated, analyzed and synthesized in a consistent and accurate manner.

This includes data obtained in the classroom, online, laboratory or clinical settings through observation, auscultation, palpation, and other measures.

  • Detect pain, pressure, temperature, position, equilibrium and movement.
  • Detect changes in skin color, condition or temperature (pale, ashen, grey, bluish).
  • Collect data from recording equipment and measurement devices used in client care.
  • Detect a fire in a client area.
  • Draw up the correct quantity of medication into a syringe.
  • Observe clients in a room from a distance of 20 feet away.
  • Detect sounds related to bodily functions using a stethoscope.
  • Observe and collect data from recording equipment and measurement devices used in client care.
  • Detect audible alarms generated by mechanical systems such as those that monitor bodily functions, fire alarms, call lights.
  • Effectively hear to communicate with others.
  • Detect unsafe temperature levels in heat-producing devices used in client care.
  • Detect anatomical abnormalities, such as subcutaneous crepitus, edema, or infiltrated IV fluids
  • Feel vibrations such as an arterial pulse.
  • Detect foul odors of bodily fluids or spoiled foods.
  • Detect smoke from burning materials.
Psycho-Social Abilities
a. Communication
1) oral
2) written
3) inter-personal
The student shall have the ability to

  • read, write, and comprehend the English language at a level that allows one to safely carry out the essential functions of an assignment
  • interpret and process information in order to provide safe care
  • access information and document both electronically and in writing
  • recognize, interpret, and respond to nonverbal behavior of self and others
  • verbally communicate with others demonstrating clear articulation and fluency in English
  • accurately elicit information from clients
  • legibly record data in a timely manner
  • Chart data electronically and in writing
  • Read and comprehend printed policy and procedure manuals
  • Explain health conditions, diagnostic and treatment procedures and initiate health teaching
  • Interpret and document client responses to health status
  • Convey information accurately, logically, and professionally through written and oral reports
  • Elicit pain levels Report changes in client status to other members of the health team
b. Critical Thinking/Judgment
Critical thinking ability is sufficient to make sound clinical judgments.
The students shall have the ability to

  • Actively examine their own thinking and the thinking of others.
  • Recall, collect, analyze, synthesize and integrate information from a variety of sources.
  • Use an objective, goal-directed methodology to gather relevant data; interpret the data and identify nursing diagnosis; plan goals and expected outcomes, nursing actions and evaluation methods for care delivery.
  • Evaluate care and skills delivered for effectiveness.
  • Analyze data, discriminating between relevant and irrelevant data about clients, and using abstract concepts to interpret the data.
  • Apply standards of care to new clinical and classroom situations.
  • Adapt ideas and resources to meet the changing needs of various client situations.
  • Display logical reasoning in planning and prioritizing care for unpredictable client situations
  • Employs curiosity to devise original solutions to client health problems or ways to prevent them.
  • Takes into account variables that affect the clinical situation, such as interpersonal dynamics (contextual perspectives.)
  • Displays intellectual integrity, virtues such as honesty, impartiality, and openness to the views of others.
  • Recognizes the implications and practical consequences of making assumptions.
  • Formulates questions about how situations might be altered to improve client care.
  • Able to reflect, give consideration to situations, integrate diverse data and possible outcomes to devise and evaluate solutions to clinical problems.
  • Able to make decisions based on utilizing a systematic process and reflective of sound scientific principles.
  • Reach well-reasoned conclusions, often in time urgent environment, that are tested against criteria and standards that are relevant, and reflect consistent, thoughtful deliberation and sound clinical judgment.
  • Communicating and collaborating effectively with others to derive practical solutions to complex problems.
  • Raise questions and problems that are well articulated and precisely formulated.
  • Develop written and oral care plans to meet clients’ health needs.
  • Able to prioritize care to safely meet client needs.
  • Calculate medication administration to meet specific clients’ needs.
  • Decide to give or hold medications based on drug knowledge, client data, and nursing knowledge and standards.
  • Collect, analyze and integrate information to make clinical judgments and management decisions that promote positive client outcomes.
  • Recognize illogical or unsafe prescriptions, and questions their validity.
  • Scans the environment and detects unsafe situations for correction.
  • Creatively solves client problems, using scientific rationales from current research for approaches.
  • Reads care plans in the textbook, but individualizes them for specific clients.
  • Makes decisions quickly, based on facts, not opinions.
  • Set short and long-term care goals and expected outcomes for clients.
  • Identifies teaching needs for health promotion of clients.
c. Professional Behavior Behavior that encompasses the interpersonal abilities and personal attributes necessary for the practice of the nursing profession in the development of effective relationships with individuals and groups with varied socioeconomic, emotional, cultural and intellectual backgrounds. Interpersonal Abilities:

  • Maintain effective, harmonious relationships with clients, families, staff, and colleagues.
  • Accept accountability and responsibility for one’s actions.
  • Comply with the ethical and legal standards of the nursing profession and the policies of the nursing program.
  • Deal effectively with interpersonal conflict.
  • Exercise stable, sound judgment in client and staff situations.

Personal Attributes:

  • Convey caring, compassion, empathy, and concern for others.
  • Demonstrate initiative, motivation, and industry.
  • Display integrity, honesty, and responsibility.
  • Display respect, sensitivity, and tolerance for diverse populations.
  • Demonstrate comfort with close physical contact in the care of clients.
d. Emotional, Psychological, Mental Stability The ability to function effectively and empathetically under stressful and rapidly changing situations while interacting with individuals and groups.
  • Maintains empathetic, flexible, culturally sensitive, therapeutic relationships with others.
  • Examines and modifies own behaviors and attitudes and accepts constructive criticisms as needed to facilitate learning and interpersonal relationships.
  • Demonstrates ability to concentrate and make effective judgments in stressful situations and rapidly changing environments.
e. Math Competency Mathematics is the study of the measurement, properties, and relationships of quantities and sets, using numbers and symbols. Competency is the ability of being adequately or well qualified.

Nurses are responsible for their own actions. They cannot depend on the instructions given by pharmacy without double-checking from the original physician order.

Additionally, nurses are responsible for grafting and reading tables to ensure safe client care.

  • Add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers
  • Read and understand columns of numbers (e.g. flow charts)
  • Read and understand digital displays
  • Read and understand graphic printouts (e.g. EKG)
  • Calibrate equipment
  • Convert number to and from the Metric System
  • Tell time: analog and military
  • Count rates (e.g. drips/min, pulse)
  • Measure time (e.g. count duration of contractions)
  • Read and understand measurement marks
  • Compute fraction (e.g. medication dosages
  • Use a calculator
  • Write numbers in records