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Essential Functional Abilities

To be successful in the Nursing program at Eastern Connecticut State University, students should be aware that the ability to meet the following technical standards is continuously assessed. Students must be able to independently, with or without accommodation, meet the following technical standards:

Observation/Communication Ability

Nursing students must be able to:

  • Effectively communicate both verbally and non-verbally with patients, peers, faculty, and other healthcare professionals
  • Use senses of vision, touch, hearing, and smell to interpret data.
  • Demonstrate abilities with speech, hearing, reading, writing, English language, and computer literacy.

Motor Ability

Nursing students must be able to:

  • Display gross and fine motor skills, physical endurance, strength, and mobility to carry out nursing procedures.
  • Possess physical and mental stamina to meet demands associated with excessive periods of standing, moving, physical exertion, and sitting.
  • Perform and/or assist with procedures, treatments, administration of medications, operate medical equipment, and assist with patient care activities such as lifting, wheelchair guidance, and mobility.

Intellectual/Conceptual Ability

Nursing students must be able to:

  • Problem-solve, measure, calculate, reason, analyze, and synthesize data to make decisions, often in a time-urgent environment.
  • Incorporate new information from teachers, peers, and nursing literature or interpret data from electronic and other monitoring devices.
  • Interpret data from electronic and other monitoring devices

Behavioral, Interpersonal, and Emotional Abilities

Nursing students must be able to:

  • Tolerate physically taxing workloads and function effectively during stressful situations.
  • Display flexibility and adaptability in the work environment.
  • Function in cases of uncertainty that are inherent in clinical situations involving patients/clients.
  • Possess the skills required for full utilization of the student’s intellectual abilities.
  • Exercise stable, sound judgment
  • Establish rapport and maintain sensitive, interpersonal relationships with others from a variety of social, emotional, cultural, and intellectual backgrounds.
  • Accept and integrate constructive feedback given in the classroom and clinical setting.

At Eastern Connecticut State University, the Office of AccessAbility Services (OAS) guides it’s work with a commitment to holistic inclusion and seeks to reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals and students with a documented disability. Assurance of equal educational opportunity rests upon legal foundations established by federal law, specifically the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 including Section 504, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and its Amendment of 2008.

Eastern Connecticut State University is committed to the goal of achieving equal educational opportunity and full participation for persons with disabilities. Students who request accommodations must self-identify and provide appropriate documentation of their disability to the Office of AccessAbility (OAS) Eligibility for reasonable and appropriate accommodation will be determined on an individual basis.