Nursing Mission and Program Outcomes

Mission Statement

The mission of the Nursing Department, designed to be congruent with that of the university and the College of Professional Studies, is “to educate students, advance the profession of nursing through scholarly activities, to provide care responsive to the health care needs of a diverse population and prepare leaders to improve healthcare outcomes of those they serve.”

Program Outcomes

The end of program outcomes incorporate the American Association of Colleges of Nursing documents The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice (2008) and The Essentials of Master's Education in Nursing (2011) and recommended by several national think tanks related to nursing and health professions education including the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Quality and Safety Education of Nurses (QSEN). Further, these outcomes support accreditation regulations as well as support Ұ��-Wide Learning Goals.

Graduates of the Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) program will be able to:

Implement quality population-focused care in the protection, promotion and optimization of the health of individuals, families and communities across the lifespan.
Integrate current evidence and sound clinical reasoning into patient-centered nursing practice.
Collaborate with inter-professional healthcare teams in the planning, coordination, and provision of high-quality care.
Demonstrate culturally congruent nursing care that reflects the worth, dignity, and uniqueness of individuals and groups.
Incorporate technology and information management to promote safe patient care.
Apply organizational, leadership and management concepts to improve health care outcomes, address policy and change in complex health environments.
Integrate professional, legal and ethical principles in the role of the nurse.
Synthesize concepts derived from liberal education to build on acquired nursing knowledge, skills and values.

Graduates of the Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Nursing will be able to:

Engage in the processes of scholarship, critical thinking, communication and research for practice and advanced study.
Employ information systems technology and inter-professional collaboration to manage and transform clinical and educational practice.
Appraise socioeconomic and health care policy issues and trends that affect advanced practice and nursing education.
Provide leadership to promote effective change in health care delivery systems and nursing education through integration of advanced nursing knowledge, theories and principles for effective outcomes.
Design population-centered and culturally responsive strategies in the delivery of clinical and educational practice.

The Specialization in Nursing Education degree program include these additional outcomes:

6.Assimilate the role of the nurse educator in academic communities or health care organizations with diverse learners.

7.Demonstrate competencies in curricula design and evaluation, theoretical applications, and research and instructional strategies using evidence-based practice.

The Specialization in School Nursing degree program include these additional outcomes:

6.Assimilate the role of the school nurse in schools and communities with diverse populations.

7.Demonstrate competencies in using evidence-based practice to design, implement, and evaluate nursing services and health education curricula in schools and communities.

Nursing Department Philosophy

The Nursing Department of Ұ�� believes nursing is a professional, scientific discipline with academic and practice dimensions. The discipline has as its primary focus the maintenance and promotion of health achieved through collaboration with individuals, families, groups, and the community in a manner that is consistent with society’s expectations and needs. The Nursing Department believes the baccalaureate level to be the essential educational preparation for professional nursing practice.

The theoretical underpinnings of professional nursing practice derive from the related disciplines of the natural sciences, social sciences, and nursing. The profession of nursing builds its knowledge base through the rigorous scientific inquiry of theory and practice that continues the process of theory development and provides the foundation for evidence-based practice. The nursing process establishes the foundation for critical thinking and clinical decision-making skills that allow complex independent judgments to be made based on available data and knowledge.

Patient: Person, Family, and/or Community

The patient is the recipient of nursing care and includes the person, family, group, and/or community, each moving through its own unique developmental stages. The recipient of care may be conceptualized as holistic, encompassing personal, social, and physical dimensions. Patients are persons with unique lifestyles, knowledge, beliefs, values, needs, and goals who interact dynamically with their environment, respond to health issues in individualized ways, and can make critical choices. They have a right to participate collaboratively with nurses in decisions and have shared accountability for outcomes. The family is a dynamic social system that attempts to meet the needs of its members. It is the primary reference group of the individual and is in constant interaction with its environment. Individuals sharing a common purpose or problem are the group or aggregate patients of nursing. A community may also be a patient as it is comprised of individuals and groups. Professional nurses can identify and utilize resources within healthcare settings and the community to improve the health and well-being of patients.

Environment

The environment comprises both the internal and external contexts of the individual and involves dynamic forces which affect the health status of the patient. The environment includes forces that are cultural, social, political, economic, and physical. The larger society is a network of relationships that link individuals in families and groups. Individuals, as open systems, are in constant interaction with the environment in a dynamic, mutual exchange. Professional nursing practice considers the impact of the sociopolitical, legal, ethical, and economic forces on person, families/groups, and communities.

Health

Health may be defined as the state of well-being at a given point in time for a patient/client. It is a multidimensional adaptive state within a constantly changing environment, characterized by wellness, illness, disease, or dysfunction. Health is influenced by the patient's development level. It is both objective and subjective and encompasses physical, psychosocial, and spiritual dimensions. Health is a relative state with parameters that may be defined differently by diverse cultures. Patients have responsibility for their health status by virtue of their ability to make health choices. The role of the professional nurse is to foster health promotion activities, to facilitate adaptation to greater levels of health, and to assist the patient in optimizing wellness.

Nursing

Nursing is a professional discipline that integrates theory and practice. The science of nursing is the generation and application of a body of theoretical knowledge to health care situations. Nursing care is patient-centered and provided to patients in a wide range of health care settings with the goal of assisting them to achieve maximal health through interventions derived from evidence-based practice.

Nursing competencies are guided by professional standards and include psychomotor and interpersonal skills, collaboration, and leadership using the processes of clinical reasoning, problem solving, and clinical decision-making. Advocacy and caring are cornerstones of the role of the professional nurse who acts on behalf of individuals, families, communities, and global populations. Nurses work autonomously within a defined scope of practice and collaboratively with members of the health team. Regulations and standards, such as those defined by state Boards of Nursing, the American Nurses Association (ANA) Scope and Standards of Practice, and the Code of Ethics for Nurses guide nursing practice as nurses are accountable to the public they serve. Scientific and technological advances and the increasing incorporation of nursing research into practice mandates involvement in lifelong learning and the incorporation of acquired knowledge into practice. A commitment to continuous quality improvement, improved patient outcomes, enhanced patient safety, and active involvement with the profession itself are key elements in professional nursing.

Educational Philosophy

The faculty of the Nursing Department believe that teaching-learning is a continuous, reciprocal, varying process according to individual differences among faculty, agency, and students. The development of a spirit of inquiry and sound clinical reasoning are crucial for the professional nurse. Facilitating student movement toward self-actualization is a basic responsibility of faculty in the teaching-learning process as students move toward becoming contributing and accountable members of the profession and of society. Evaluation is a continual process which must be conducted systematically by faculty, students, and others involved in learning. Ongoing evaluation contributes to the promotion, maintenance, and restoration of the health of the community of which the University and Department is part.

Educational Process

Nursing Department faculty believe in a learner-centered, facilitative academic environment that delivers nursing education to a diverse student body based on four values:

The educational process partners students and faculty in collaborative mentoring relationships that transcend traditional educational boundaries.
The infrastructure aids flexible educational efforts rather than having the infrastructure dictate the education that may be offered.
There is a synthesis of conceptual and theoretical information with the practical realities of the current healthcare environment.
Higher education is made accessible to students who are adult learners, who may have families, and who may work, some full time.

Academic Environment

Nursing Department faculty believe in a learner-centered, facilitative academic environment that delivers nursing education to a diverse student body based on four values:

The educational process partners students and faculty in collaborative mentoring relationships that transcend traditional educational boundaries.
The infrastructure aids flexible educational efforts rather than having the infrastructure dictate the education that may be offered.
There is a synthesis of conceptual and theoretical information with the practical realities of the current healthcare environment.
Higher education is made accessible to students who are adult learners, who may have families, and who may work, some full time.

Nursing Department Values

The Ұ�� Nursing Department faculty believe in the following eight premises on which all nursing education is based:

Treat students as we treat each other, with genuine interest, egalitarian respect, and positive but realistic expectations, all based on honest and open communication.
Be committed to changing people’s lives and facilitating students’ desire to achieve an education, with a focus on living, learning, growing, and achieving.
Be dedicated to providing education with passion and inspiration in a way that instills a commitment to lifelong learning.
Participate in out-of-class teaching and mentoring, whenever and wherever the teachable moment occurs.
Be committed to doing whatever it takes to help a student, whether in class, in an office, on the telephone, or in e-mail.
Provide contemporary experiential and theoretical knowledge engaging with students and bring a sense of fun and adventure to the hard work.
Participate in continuing education activities to promote professional growth.
Support evidence-based learning activities.

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