Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN)

The University of Toronto, Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing’s full-time, two-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) program opens the door to a long and rewarding career in health care. The Faculty of Nursing has a long history of educating nurses at the baccalaureate level and is renowned internationally for its educational programs and the quality of nursing research conducted by its faculty members.

Graduates of the program will practice nursing safely, competently and ethically by:

• Providing nursing care for sick and vulnerable persons
• Providing health of individuals, families, groups and communities
• Establishing and maintaining interpersonal and therapeutic relationships and partnerships
• Enacting values of equity and social justice in addressing the social determinants of health
• Examining, synthesizing and incorporating multiple knowledges to provide care
• Collaborating as members of an interprofessional team

In the first year, content in the program is focused on the theory, research, and practice relevant to the care of patients, families and communities. In the fall of the first year, the foci are: health assessment, therapeutic skills and relational skills, discipline and professional issues, and concepts of health across the lifespan. Students address the developmental needs of healthy families, children, and older persons. Clinical practice takes place in hospital and community settings. In the second term, students concentrate on the pathophysiology and care of individuals experiencing acute illnesses that require hospitalization. Concurrently, clinical practice occurs in paediatric, mental health and adult medical-surgical settings. Students are also introduced to theories and concepts guiding community health nursing in Canada and internationally.

In the second year of the program, students complete courses related to Nursing and the Health Care System: Policy, Ethics and Leadership (NUR 410H), Research and Scholarship in Nursing (NUR 430H), Critical Reflexivity: Theory as Practice [formerly Advanced Nursing Theory] (NUR 420H), and Current Issues in Medical Microbiology (MPL 202H). Students complete two consecutive clinical courses that integrate theory, research and clinical practice over both terms. The first concentrates on complexity and coping with persistent illness and the second focuses on primary health care. Students are able to choose a focus and a specialty area of practice within each of these two seminar-based clinical courses. The final course prepares students for independent practice after graduation. Students complete an 11-week continuous integrative clinical practicum at the end of year two. Each student placement is chosen in collaboration with faculty and in consideration of future career goals, student strengths and challenges.