Technical Standards for Admission, Progression, and Graduation

The Technical Standards for Admission, Progression and Graduation (Technical Standards) are an integral component of the School of Nursing (SON) at the University of Mississippi Medical Center academic requirements that identify core professional nursing competencies in eight specific domains - critical thinking/cognitive competencies, professional relationships, communication, mobility, motor skills, hearing and visual skills, observation and tactile senses. Nursing students must meet all the requirements of the Technical Standards, with or without reasonable accommodations, in order to successfully progress through and graduate from their respective curricula.

Individuals interested in applying for admission to the SON are encouraged to review the Technical Standards to become familiar with the skills, abilities and behavioral characteristics required to complete the programs.

This list is not all-inclusive and all applicable skills cannot be listed. The School of Nursing reserves the right to determine other relevant criteria in order to preserve the School's professional and academic standards. The table below is adapted from the SREB Sample Core Professional Standards as developed by the SREB Council on Collegiate Education for Nursing Education.

Technical Standards

• Critical Thinking and Cognitive Competencies
  Critical thinking and cognitive abilities for effective clinical reasoning and clinical judgment consistent with level of educational preparation
  Examples: identify cause/effect relationships in clinical situations; use of the scientific method in the development of patient care plans; evaluate effectiveness of nursing interventions; accurately follow course syllabi, assignment directions, patient protocols, and any actions plan(s) developed by deans, faculty, administrators, or health care agency staff.
• Professional Relationships
  Interpersonal skills sufficient for professional interactions with a diverse population of individuals, families, and groups
  Examples: establish rapport with patients/clients and colleagues; capacity to engage in successful conflict resolution; peer accountability.
• Communication
  Communication adeptness sufficient for verbal and written professional interactions
  Examples: explanation of treatment procedures, initiation of health teaching; accurate elicitation of information from patients, family members/significant others, health team members, and/or faculty; documentation and interpretation of nursing actions and patient/client responses.
• Mobility
  Physical abilities sufficient for movement from room to room and in small spaces
  Examples: movement about patient's rooms, work spaces, and treatment areas; administer rescue procedures such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
• Motor Skills
  Gross and fine motor abilities sufficient for providing safe, effective nursing care
  Examples: calibration and use of equipment; therapeutic positioning, moving, and transferring of patients; perform and/or assist with expected nursing student procedures, treatments, and medication administration using appropriate sterile or clean technique (i.e., medication administration, BLS, ACLS, CPR, insertion of catheters); endurance sufficient to complete all required tasks during the assigned period of clinical practice.
• Hearing and Visual
  Auditory and visual ability sufficient for observing, monitoring and assessing health needs
  Examples: ability to hear monitoring device alarm and other emergency signals; ability to discern sounds and cries for help; ability to observe patient's condition and responses to treatments.
• Observation
  Ability to make observations in connection with other identified professional nursing student competencies
  Examples: use and accurate interpretation of information obtained from digital, analog, and waveform diagnostic tools and other diagnostic tools that monitor or obtain physiological phenomena; observation and interpretation of a patient's heart and body sounds, body language; color of wounds, drainage, urine, feces, expectoration; sensitivity to heat, cold, pain, and pressure; and signs and symptoms of disease, pain, and infection.
• Tactile Sense
  Tactile ability sufficient for physical assessment
  Examples: ability to palpate in physical examinations and various therapeutic interventions.

Source: Southern Regional Education Board. (n.d.). The Americans with Disabilities Act: Implications for nursing education. sreb.org/publication/american-disabilities-act.

All individuals will be reviewed based upon their own facts and circumstances.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center is committed to ensuring equal access to a quality education for qualified students through the provision of reasonable academic accommodations which support UMMC standards and academic integrity. UMMC policy provides for reasonable academic accommodations to be made for students with verified disabilities on an individualized and flexible basis as specified under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).

UMMC provides reasonable academic accommodations to students on campus who request accommodations and who meet eligibility criteria. For more information or to request academic accommodations, individuals should go to the Office of Student Success webpage and complete the Request Academic Accommodations online form.