Technical Standards

All applicants accepted into the Nursing Program must be able to meet the department's technical standards as outlined on this page.

 Hudson Valley Community College's Center for Access and Assistive Technology will provide accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Please complete the attached form certifying that you have read, understand and are able to meet these standards.

Technical Standards for Admission, Promotion and Graduation

Technical Standards are non-academic criteria used in the admission, promotion and graduation of students. Technical Standards are published discipline specific essentials critical for the safe and reasonable practice of Nursing.

Technical Standards are a concrete statement of the minimum physical, sensory/motor, communication, behavioral/social, mental/emotional and environmental requirements for normal and safe professional function. They are intended to inform the prospective student/professional of the attributes, characteristics and abilities essential to nursing practice. Professional competency is the summation of many cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills. The College has a moral and ethical responsibility to select, educate and certify competent and safe students and practitioners. Patient health and safety is the sole benchmark against which we measure all performance requirements, including the Technical Standards addressed in this document.

Applicant Technical Standards form must be signed on last page and returned to the Department of Nursing program.

Technical Standards

• Must be able to demonstrate appropriate observation and assessment nursing care skills. Reading charts, flow sheets, monitors, and thermometers. Assessment of patient skin color, pupils, wound healing. Drawing up and administering medications.
• Must be able to demonstrate the ability to monitor and assess health needs. Auscultation of blood pressure, breath sounds, heart sounds, bowel sounds. Hearing alarms, call bells, cries for help by clients and staff. Auditory ability to converse with clients, families and co-workers. Understanding mechanically reproduced voices such as on audiotape.
• Communication abilities sufficient for interaction with others in verbal and written form. Follow verbal and written instructions. Clearly communicate with other health care providers by appropriately documenting the nursing interventions provided and the clients' responses. Provide effective client teaching, consult with other health care providers in a professional manner.
• Ability to meet the physical demands of providing nursing care - lifting, moving, carrying, pushing and supporting clients, equipment and other objects independently. Standing, bending, walking and sitting while working directly with clients and co-workers and documenting care. In addition to the physical capabilities required during the classroom and laboratory sessions, clinical education includes moving briskly between patient care areas, and meeting the mental and physical demands of 12-hour shifts on both day and night rotations.
• Tactile dexterity sufficient for physical assessment. Perform palpation, functions of physical examination and/or those related to therapeutic intervention, e.g. insertions of a catheter, giving injections.
• Gross and fine motor abilities sufficient to provide safe and effective nursing care. Perform vital signs, CPR, physical assessment, use equipment, hanging IVs and tube feedings, drawing up and giving injections. Demonstrate the ability to document nursing interventions and patient care.

If you have a documented disability and require reasonable accommodations to meet the technical standards, please contact the Center for Access and Assistive Technology Director DeAnne Martocci at (518) 629-7154 or TDD (518) 629-7596.

For information on services for students with disabilities or if you have a question regarding these technical standards please call or write to:

DeAnne Martocci
Director, Center for Access and Assistive Technology
Siek Campus Center, Room 130
(518) 629-7154
T.D.D. (518) 629-7596
FAX (518) 629-4831

Please feel free to write a separate letter and to forward any reports, articles, or other information that would be helpful in providing support. NOTE: Appropriate documentation must be supplied in order to secure the requested accommodations. The completed form and related correspondence should be returned to the Center for Access and Assistive Technology, Siek Campus Center Room 130, Hudson Valley Community College, Troy, NY 12180.