Nurses - Online CEUs - Course Descriptions

Advanced ECG Analysis
3 Credit Hours
This course is for those who have a solid, basic knowledge of ECG and wave forms. The goal for this course is to provide an overview of the causes and interventions for sinus, junctional, atrial, and ventricular ECG mechanisms. Those who wish to gain additional information about all of the possible ECG mechanisms are encouraged to undertake additional advanced study in this field.

Applying Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning to Practice
3 Credit Hours
The outcome-present-state-test (OPT) model of clinical reasoning is a third-generation nursing process model that emphasizes the integration of reflection, outcome-specification, and critical and creative thinking into clinical nursing practice. This course offers an introduction to this innovative theory. The first topic provides an overview OPT and how it might be implemented into clinical practice. The second topic discusses its application to research and theory development and the third topic discusses the use of OPT in the creation of future models.

Assisting Grieving Patients and Families
3 Credit Hours
Nurses who have an understanding of the basic concepts of grief and a knowledge of different coping strategies are equipped with the tools necessary to guide and comfort those who need their care. This course presents an introduction to the grieving process. The first topic introduces some of the leading theories on grief. The second topic discusses the role hospice plays in the life of the dying patient and includes a discussion of holistic care and bereavement care. The third topic explores caring for patients with chronic illness, including a discussion of chronic sorrow and various coping strategies.

Blood and Blood Product Administration
3 Credit Hours
The registered professional nurse who is engaged in active practice needs to be thoroughly familiar with all aspects of blood transfusion therapy, and to develop competence and maintain expertise in its application. The goal of this course is to provide nurses with an opportunity to review the basic concepts that underlie blood and blood product administration and transfusion therapy.

Cardiovascular Disease: Selected Electrical Interventions
3 Credit Hours
Heart disease is still the leading cause of death in the United States. Any health care provider who is directly involved in the care of the cardiac patient should be familiar with the interventions used in their treatment. This course introduces learners to some of the electrical interventions used in the treatment of patients with cardiovascular diseases. The first topic presents an overview of electrical interventions, such as defibrillation and cardioversion. The second topic introduces learners to the basic components and functions of electronic pacemakers and the third topic provides a basic introduction to the 12-Lead ECG.

Care of Infants, Children and Adolescents for the Community Health Nurse
3 Credit Hours
Community health nurses serving families and communities are in unique positions to provide and teach caring behaviors that support healthy development. Child health care focuses on preventing acute and chronic illness while promoting normal growth and development. The goal of this course is to focus on the care and nurturance of children from conception through adulthood and on the roles of community health nurses serving these populations.

Care of Young, Middle, and Older Adults for the Community Health Nurse
3 Credit Hours
This course examines some of the risk factors and conditions prevalent at each stage of adulthood and includes a discussion of healthy environments as well as healthy relationships with self, partner, family, friends, and neighbors. The goal of this course is to discuss the growth and development of the adult as the basis for patient assessment, planning, intervention, and evaluation.

Chronic Illness in Vulnerable Populations
3 Credit Hours
Chronic illnesses have challenged the lives of people for centuries. They do not respond well to customary curative medical interventions and they do require health care providers to rethink familiar traditional health care approaches. The goal of this course is to provide nurses with an opportunity to explore the challenges faced by people who experience a chronic physical illness. The role of community health nurses and the epidemiology of chronic disease are also discussed.

Communicable Diseases
3 Credit Hours
This course presents the background for nurses' involvement in the control and monitoring of communicable disease. One of the earliest functions of community health nurses was caring for individuals with communicable diseases. This focus later changed to prevention of diseases through early treatment, reporting, and immunization. The goal of this course is to present an overview of some of the emerging infections as well as of those infectious agents (organisms that transfer disease from the environment to the host) that have been known to people for centuries. Also included is a discussion of prevention measures effective in controlling transmission. Finally, the course summarizes disease transmission, immunity, and the characteristics of select communicable diseases. You will be able to utilize the specific principles presented as they pertain to communicable diseases in general and to those diseases reviewed in particular.

Cultural Assessment
3 Credit Hours
The racial, ethnic, and cultural diversification of American society is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. Such changes in demographics make it imperative that nurses are able to communicate effectively with a culturally diverse group of patients, make accurate cultural assessments, and plan, provide and evaluate culturally competent care. This course introduces nurses to the concept of cultural assessment and ways it can be implemented into patient care.

Developing Transcultural Communication Skills
3 Credit Hours
To excel in today's multicultural health care workplace, nurses must communicate confidently with patients and co-workers from cultures that are often different than their own. This course strives to help nurses improve their observational, listening, verbal and nonverbal transcultural communication skills, then demonstrates methods for applying these skills to patient assessment and care planning.

Developmental Disabilities in Vulnerable Populations
3 Credit Hours
Nurse advocacy for clients and families is important, as proposed changes in health care and reduced funding may not support the important gains made in the past four decades. This course provides nurses with tools to develop interventions with clients and their families that maintain or improve health and functions through the life cycle. The goal of this course is to offer the community health nurse information, principles, and perspectives for working with people with developmental disabilities.

Energy Healing
3 Credit Hours
Healing with the concept of energy is as ancient as human history. Over the past thirty years, energy-oriented healing has moved into the health care mainstream as a viable complement to other therapies. This introductory course explores various energy-oriented approaches to emotional healing and ways in which the nurse can implement them into patient care. The first topic provides an introduction to the energy healing by defining human energy and the major energy centers. The second topic explores using energy healing while working with patients who suffer from a variety of psychological or physical disorders. The third topic looks at ways nurse or others who are new to energy healing might implement these concepts into their own practice.

Environmental Perspectives
3 Credit Hours
As we enter the new millennium, there is cause for grave concern. Environmental issues are threatening the life of the earth, at least life on the earth as we know it. Because life essentially depends on air, soil, and water, human health and the environment are inextricably woven, and because nursing is involved with human health, the environment is central to nursing. Conceptually, health can be thought of as an expression of the person-environment interrelationship, an inseparable process that makes up the person and the environment. This course will review specific environmental concerns. The goal of this course is to provide a framework for assessing environments, describe how to create a caring environment, review person-environment theories, and demonstrate the application of the nursing process to the environment.

Ethics and Gender Issues
3 Credit Hours
In a perfect world people would consistently relate to each other with mutual respect and empathy. Unfortunately, the reality of our lives is that prejudice and lack of understanding sometimes cloud our interactions. This course examines gender issues in the nursing workplace and is offered as a guide to help nurses learn to make sound choices and act in principled ways in both personal and professional realms. The goal of this course is to provide nurses with an opportunity to examine and question their opinions and values as they relate to real-life situations, particularly concerning the issue of gender and nursing. A discussion of nursing as an ethical science and an overview of the impact of historical factors, particularly gender, on the profession of nursing in Western culture are presented. Finally, the course explores the factors associated with sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexism in nursing as well as communication issues related to gender.

Fluid and Electrolyte Fundamentals of Intravenous Infusion Therapy
3 Credit Hours
The registered professional nurse who is engaged in active practice needs to be thoroughly familiar with all aspects of infusion therapy, and to develop competence and maintain expertise in its application. The goal of this course is to offer nurses an opportunity to review the basic concepts that underlie intravenous infusion therapy. It covers the fundamentals of fluids and homeostasis, the composition and movements of body fluids, and acid-base balance.

Fostering Communication between Culturally Diverse Health Care Providers
3 Credit Hours
In addition to bridging the transcultural gap between themselves and their patients, nurses must also learn how to communicate with medical personnel from around the globe. The nursing and medical workforce of today is dramatically different from the workforce of the past. Large urban hospitals are recruiting more foreign nurses and the improved work and economic conditions in this country are attracting foreign nurses. The demand for ancillary personnel has also increased the number of foreign workers and ethnically diverse minorities in the health care workplace. The goal of this course is to provide nurses with an overview of the transcultural communication barriers that occur between health care providers from different cultures and provide them with tools to improve their transcultural communication skills. The dynamics of transcultural conflict in the workplace and methods for resolving these conflicts are also discussed.

Frameworks for Assessing Families
3 Credit Hours
Historically, community health nurses have been an integral part of health promotion and disease prevention. As the health care system continues to change, nurses will begin directing more of their energy toward working with families in home or community settings. This course explores the nurse's role in assessing and working with families. The first topic discusses theories of family from both a nursing and social science perspective, then applies the nursing process to family assessment. The second topic takes a look at the ways families function, and the third topic explores issues of family violence.

Global & Political Health Care Challenges--Ethical Concerns for Today's Nurse
3 Credit Hours
Today's nurses are responsible professionals and citizens who acknowledge and participate in decisions related to various political, economic, social, gender, transcultural, and spirituality issues effecting health care. The goal of this course is to address challenges and changes in health care delivery and examine local, national, and global issues. This course features examples of selected political issues as they relate to the process of creating health policy and describes specific methods that nurses can utilize to influence policy.

Healing Nutrition
3 Credit Hours
Nutrition is our most fundamental need, a fact that is easy to forget in our fast-paced society. To best serve their patients, nurses first need to understand why nutrition is important and ways to select the optimal food for their own lives. This course examines attitudes surrounding eating and food, with the goal of helping learners maximize their understanding of ways to make healthy eating an integral part of their lives. The first topic covers the importance of nutrition and includes a discussion of the ways behaviors and attitudes influence our food selection and consumption. The second topic examines the role of nutrition throughout our lives and the third topic presents some current debates, such as megavitamin therapy and food irradiation.

Healing Touch-A Complementary Approach to Health Care
3 Credit Hours
One of the significant contributions of Healing Touch is that it integrates easily with other modalities the practitioner may already be using such as the many body-oriented therapies, traditional medical practice in hospital and clinical settings, and established practices of psychotherapy. This course explores the bridges with medical settings, many of which are constantly developing as physicians and nurses utilize energy concepts as a complement to the work they are currently undertaking. The goal of this course is to present Healing Touch as a modality that best serves as a complement or an adjunct to other helping modalities. The ways in which Healing Touch can enhance the traditional practices of medicine, body-oriented therapies, and psychotherapy will be examined.

Health Care Delivery Systems Around the World
3 Credit Hours
Because of the recognition of the global connectedness among nations and the increasing concern for international health and health care, community health nurses need to understand the organizational issues in health care delivery systems from an international perspective. Global health care issues and a discussion of international health initiatives that have particular relevance for community health nursing are presented. The major international health organizations, including those in nursing are also discussed. The goal of this course is to describe the changing perspective in health care delivery systems, with a focus on selected health care systems. Implications for the future are also explored.

Health Care Economics
3 Credit Hours
The American health care system is in the midst of unparalleled change. The paradigm, or model, under which the U.S. health care system operates changed dramatically after 1983, when the federal government introduced diagnosis-related groups as a means of controlling health care costs. While economics is playing a significant role in the paradigm shift, many other factors, such as consumer demand for the most up-to-date therapies, an aging population, and living longer with chronic illness, must be understood in order to put these changes in context. Change begins with understanding. The goal of this course is to provide you with an understanding of the U.S. health care system with the goal of influencing it in ways that clearly demonstrate nursing's commitment to protecting the public's health. This course provides an overview of general and health care economics and their influencing factors. A discussion of factors contributing to rising health care costs and of the cost-control measures that have been or could be put in place to curb this trend is also included.

Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Perpsectives
3 Credit Hours
Health was once defined as "living a long life" or as "the absence of disease." However, health is increasingly viewed as a cultural concept defined in various ways according to cultural beliefs. The goal of this course to provide nurses with an overview of factors that influence health status. Recommendations related to diet, exercise, sleep, and stress management, and alternative/complementary therapies used to promote health and prevent disease are discussed. Also explored are the clinical applications to nursing practice of disease prevention and health promotion in the community.

Human Resource Management and Empowerment for the Nurse Leader
3 Credit Hours
The professional practice of nursing today requires the practitioner to be adept at many complex skills, both technical and cognitive. The ability to be competent in problem solving and decision making becomes an essential part of nursing practice for the nurse leader. The nurse manager is also required to be a competent decision maker in many different arenas. He or she is expected to be an expert clinician as well as an expert in budgeting, human resource development, leadership strategies, and team building. The goal of this course is to provide the nurse with valuable insight into the importance of human resource management and empowerment. The process of selection, training, and retaining appropriate human resources is the key to developing an appropriate team responsible for carrying out the leader's vision and the organization's mission. This course provides the nurse with very specific direction regarding human resource issues from a management perspective and then explores general issues surround the concept of empowerment and team building from a leadership perspective.

Injury Prevention and Public Health
3 Credit Hours
People's general state of health is, in many cases, closely tied to their socioeconomic status. The improvement in the U.S. health status depends on the effective application of public health techniques. This course offers nurses an introduction to public health practice. The first topic presents an overview of the history of public health and includes a section on international health. The second topic discusses public health and the law and the third topic covers the management of public health budgets and funding.

Innovations in Organizational Redesign
3 Credit Hours
Nursing has an enormous stake in controlling the direction and pace of innovation for the profession. Nurse leaders need key skills to direct the business of redesign. This course is designed for nurses who are current in leadership positions as well as nurses who plan to enter leadership positions in the future. It serves as a first step in the process of organizational redesign by first examining the concept of innovation, then ways to examine the culture of an organization before then evaluating work flow and areas that would benefit from change.

Intravenous Infusion Therapy for the Pediatric Patient
2 Credit Hours
The goal of this course is to provide nurses with an overview of the specific issues involved in administering intravenous therapy to pediatric patients. The course includes a discussion of the physiologic, cognitive, and psychosocial characteristics of children, indications for intravenous therapy in pediatric patients, and complications that arise when administering fluid and electrolyte therapy to children.

Intravenous Therapy for the Geriatric Patient
2 Credit Hours
The goal of this course is to provide nurses with an overview of the specific issues facing geriatric patients, including the physiologic changes of aging, indications for intravenous therapy, and complications that arise when administering fluid and electrolyte therapy to these patients.

Introduction to ECG Analysis
3 Credit Hours
The ECG is a window to the magnificent process of electrical activation and life-sustaining pulses. Because ECG is such a useful tool, it should be mastered by anyone who is entrusted with the care of the cardiac patient. This course presents a basic overview of the general principles of ECG analysis. The first topic reviews basic information on ECG leads, and how to measure an ECG recording and waveforms. The second topic reviews sinus and junctional mechanisms, then covers some disorders related to each, such as sinus tachycardia, sinoatrial block, and premature junctional complex. The third topic discusses atrial and ventricular mechanisms and disorders related to each, such as atrial flutter, atrial fibrillation, and premature ventricular complex.

Introduction to Healing Touch
3 Credit Hours
Healing Touch (HT) is an energetic approach to healing that works in conjunction with other ways of treating the body/mind interconnection. This course offers a basic introduction to nurses, or other caregivers, who are interested in learning more about HT. The first topic presents an overview and the history of healing touch and includes a discussion of the human energy field. The second topic outlines the different clinical applications of HT interventions, such as full-body techniques, localized techniques, and techniques for specific problems. The third topic discusses ways to implement HT within other healing modalities, such as body-related therapies like massage or psychotherapy.

IV Nutritional Support
3 Credit Hours
Approximately 90 percent of the patients in acute care settings receive some form of intravenous infusion therapy and up to 75 percent of home-bound patients undergo continuous or intermittent IV treatment. The nurse practicing today is accountable for the safety and welfare of a diverse population of patients, most of whom require such treatment. The nurse must adhere to many different mandates and guidelines, maintain strict standards of infection control, and sustain expertise in using new and sophisticated equipment, all while working efficiently under the constraints of time and cost-containment. The goal of this course is to provide the nurse with an overview of one aspect of intravenous therapy-intravenous nutritional support.

Nursing and the Decision Making Process
3 Credit Hours
The practice of nursing today requires the nurse to be adept at many complex skills, both technical and cognitive. The ability to be a competent decision maker and problem solver is an essential skill for today's nurse. This course provides an overview of the decision making process, then explores a variety of decision making scenarios, such as individual and group decision making, plus cultural and ethical factors that affect sound decision making. The final topic explores the unique challenges the introduction of technology into health care places on decision making.

Nursing Care of the Culturally Diverse Patient
3 Credit Hours
Transcultural communication plays a vital role in all aspects of the nursing process. Transcultural communication skills are needed not only for assessing and diagnosing patients from different cultures, but also for planning, implementing, and evaluating their care and learning needs. The goal of this course is to provide nurses with an understanding of the transcultural techniques used to gather patient information and design culturally appropriate nursing diagnoses. Nurses will explore the use of transcultural communication skills to develop care plans that will be acceptable to patients from diverse cultures. Finally, nurses will examine how to use transcultural communication techniques to teach patients about their care and evaluate the results.

Nursing Ethics--Transcultural and Spiritual Issues
3 Credit Hours
The influence of culture, religion, and spirituality are major factors in the development of values. Because nurses deal with people from varied cultural and spiritual backgrounds, it is important that they be alert for issues relating to these areas. Communication is a key factor in providing culturally congruent and spiritually sensitive care and in averting associated legal and other dilemmas. The goal of this course is to present general considerations regarding culture and spirituality and to discuss related issues that may arise when caring for patients. Cultural beliefs and values, the influence of culture on health and health care decisions, transcultural issues in nursing, complementary therapies and the relationship between spirituality and health will be explored.

Nutritional Assessment
3 Credit Hours
Nutrition, or the process by which the body metabolizes and utilizes nutrients, affects every system in the body, both positively and negatively. We must have food and drink to sustain life, but what type and how much are the questions that must be asked when assessing a person's nutritional health. The goal of this course is to help health care providers understand how the body digests and absorbs nutrients, the importance of meeting daily nutritional requirements, the causes and results of an imbalance of nutrients, and how to assess them. Psychological, social, and cultural issues must also be considered during a nutritional assessment.

Organizational Redesign: Evaluation
3 Credit Hours
Nursing has an enormous stake in controlling the direction and pace of innovation for the profession. Nurse leaders need key skills to direct the business of redesign in their organizations. This course takes an in-depth look at the process of redesign, beginning with the project designing and leading into its implementation and evaluation.

Overcoming Transcultural Communication Barriers
3 Credit Hours
To successfully work with patients from other cultures, nurses must continually strive for clear communication and mutual understanding. Communicating with patients from different cultures may be complicated by the nurse's lack of knowledge, bias, ethnocentrism, and stereotyping, language differences, differences in terminology, and differences in perceptions and expectations. The goal of this course is to provide nurses with guidelines for overcoming transcultural communication barriers. The role of the medical interpreter and the specific techniques for working with and without a medical interpreter when assessing patients and providing care are also covered.

Principled Behavior in the Professional Domain
3 Credit Hours
Ethical dilemmas involve choices with no clearly correct solutions. Nurses face such situations frequently as they juggle their professional, legal, and care giving responsibilities. This course explores some of the ethical conflicts nurses face in practice. The first topic explores current legal issues and trends, then takes a look at some potentially difficult patient choices, such as abortion. The second topic explores professional issues that directly affect nurses, such as accountability, autonomy, then looks at the nurse's relationship with the other members of the health care team. The third topic takes a look at ways some technological developments in health care have raised some ethical questions for both nurses and patients.

Recovering from Addictions: Introduction to the Vulnerability Model
3 Credit Hours
This course is designed for nurses who work, or plan to work, with patients who are in recovery from addictions. It takes a practical look at the various theories of recovery and presents a new method, the vulnerability model, based on biological, psychological, familial, social and spiritual factors, as its framework. The first topic covers the cycle of addiction and includes a discussion of addiction theories, denial, and the process of recovery. The second topic discusses the concept of choice as a key to the recovery technique and includes ways the nurse may assist the patient in this process. The third topic presents the spiritual aspects of recovery and ways the nurse can help the patient integrate health practices with spiritual practices in the recovery process.

Responsible Decision Making and the Management of Resources
3 Credit Hours
The practice of nursing today requires the nurse to be adept at many complex skills, both technical and cognitive. The nurse manager faces decision-making in many areas beyond the clinical arena, such as budgeting, human resource development, leadership strategies, and team building. This course is designed for nurse managers or nurses considering the move into management. It provides an overview of decision making strategies in the management of finances and budgets, human resources, then discusses ways to implement this skill to empower both yourself and the members of your health care team.

Self Care for the Nurse Using Healing Touch
3 Credit Hours
To nurse means to care for or to nurture with compassion. Most nurses begin their formal education with this ideal. Many nurses retain this orientation after graduation, and some manage their entire careers under this guiding principle of caring. Many, however, tend to forget this ideal in the hectic pace of their professional and personal lives, becoming discouraged and burned out. Nurses can avoid burnout, remain enthusiastic about their professional careers, and provide effective care through the development of their own healing resources using a technique known as healing touch. The goal of this course is to provide nurses with the tools for learning these resources. This course provides an overview of energy-based healing, discusses healing touch for the nurse, provides opportunities to practice the technique, and finally, provides exercises and information to assist the nurse in his or her own personal development as a healer.

Sociology of Death
3 Credit Hours
This course offers nurses new insight into their roles as caregivers of terminally ill patients. The course presents the concept of "healing the dying," or the nurse's active participation in the patient's development of new intrapersonal, interpersonal, spiritual, and societal relationships during the dying process. The first topic discusses what it means to heal the dying and how the nurse plays a key role in this process. The second topic covers the sociology of death, including the relationship of death and society, mortality through the ages, and the concepts of peaceful death and letting go. The third topic presents theories related to dying and healing, including grief theory, family theory, and self-transcendence.

Spiritual Assessment
3 Credit Hours
Spiritual beliefs can play a large role in a patient's health care decisions. For example, beliefs may determine whether a patient will keep a clinic appointment, follow a specific diet, take medications, or agree to surgery. To provide effective and responsible patient care, the nurse must address all aspects of their patients, including their spiritual dimension. This course introduces nurses to the concept of spiritual assessment and ways it can be implemented into patient care.

Technology and Nursing Ethics
3 Credit Hours
The term technology includes the vast range of scientific advances that affect health and health care. Changing technologies bring with them the challenge of dealing with new issues, and nurses need to be prepared to face this challenge. This course focuses on common issues related to technology encountered in today's health care settings. Issues of technology, patient self-determination, and economics are intertwined. The goal of this course is to help nurses explore considerations regarding the effect of technology on patient care. These considerations include values, attitudes, communication, and attention to the humanistic caring role of nurses.

Transcultural Communication Techniques
3 Credit Hours
Successful transcultural communication is a skill that requires specific knowledge, training, and practice. Because the population of the United States is becoming more culturally diverse, there is an urgent need to develop transcultural communication skills. Clear communication is paramount to a harmonious nurse-patient relationship, especially when the nurse and the patient are from very different cultural backgrounds. Since nurses will be working closely with patients from different cultures, it is very important to learn how to develop a transcultural therapeutic relationship. The goal of this course is to help nurses develop an understanding of transcultural communication and explore therapeutic transcultural communication techniques. Several self-assessment exercises are presented at the beginning of the course to provide the nurse with an opportunity for further insight.

Understanding Grief
3 Credit Hours
Nurses who are equipped with knowledge of different coping strategies have the tools necessary to provide support and guidance to the bereaved. This course explores a variety of challenging situations that deal with the loved ones of the deceased. The first topic covers ways the nurse can help the bereaved deal with loss, and includes the death of a child, a life partner, a parent, and a sibling. The second topic discusses ways to help children cope with grief and the third topic looks at the complications of grief following AIDS related and trauma related death.

Using Creative Imagery in Nursing
3 Credit Hours
Creative visualization and guided imagery use the power of the mind to potentiate healing of the body and are actually modern versions of ancient methods. Creative imagery is a practical, inexpensive and noninvasive tool nurses can use to help their patients mobilize their personal resources for self-healing. This course offers an introduction to the concept of creative visualization and guided imagery, then presents a variety of techniques and suggestions for implementing this tool into patient care.

Women and Their Health
1Credit Hour
Medical information is essential to women who want to interact intelligently with their health care providers. To provide the best possible care to their female patients, nurses have a responsibility to stay on top of current issues that affect them. This course takes a look at several issues facing women today. The first topic discusses breast cancer and begins with a brief overview of breast morphology before exploring the risk factors and treatment options currently available to breast cancer patients. The second topic discusses the possible causes of infertility, then looks at fertility drugs and reproductive technologies, such as oocyte retrieval and embryo transfer. The third topic looks at women and the AIDS epidemic and discusses causes and effects of infection with HIV, transmission of the virus, and treatment options.

Working with High Risk Populations
3 Credit Hours
Historically, community health nurses have been an integral part of health promotion and disease prevention. Over the last few decades there has been increasing need for nurses to care for clients in the community and provide them with services designed to promote, protect, and preserve their health. This course explores three topics are relevant to all nurses, regardless of their place of employment: homelessness, family violence, and substance abuse. The first topic explores homeless, beginning with a definition of homelessness, then moving on to nursing care of homeless patients and common health problems they experience. The second topic takes a brief look at the various types of family violence and strategies the caregiver might employ and the third topic explores substance abuse, including the cycle of addiction, common conditions, and nursing care.