Philosophy and Goals
Philosophy
Faculty in the Department of Nursing bring distinct and diverse experiences, abilities, and beliefs to the curriculum and the classroom. The philosophy of the Department of Nursing exemplifies the beliefs that faculty and students share about health, the recipients of care, role preparation, nursing, and nursing education.
Health is a state of physical, psychological, interpersonal and environmental well-being based on adaptive response to stressors and is viewed on a continuum from wellness to illness.
Patients, the recipients of nursing care, include individuals, families, groups, and communities. Patients and nurses collaborate in the assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of nursing and health care.
Nurses are responsible for maintaining, promoting, and enhancing the health and safety of individuals, families, groups and communities, and for contributing to improvements in the health care system. Nurses emphasize primary health care, promote healthy lifestyles, and recognize the importance of health promotion and disease prevention.
The role of the nurse evolves in response to changing expectations and demands in the marketplace. Nurses provide holistic health care that includes health education, advocacy, and a committed, caring relationship. They are responsible for participating in discussions and seeking solutions for health care issues locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.
Exploring and adopting approaches to education enhance relationships between learners and teachers, creates a stimulating learning environment, and promote educational excellence. The curriculum reflects characteristics and needs of students, traditional and emerging health care and safe nursing practice, and a community-based health care system. Communication, reasoning, analysis, research, decision-making, and technological innovations—central concepts of baccalaureate nursing education—influence the curriculum and pedagogy.
Faculty and students share responsibility for learning goals and outcomes and participatory learning activities. Faculty facilitate and guide learning experiences consistent with student knowledge, skills, and experience. Faculty and students interact with the community and health care professionals to provide disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning activities and practice opportunities.
An active, stimulating, and exciting environment encourages inquiry, curiosity, critical thinking, and insight. Students in such an environment achieve at a higher level and gain tools and aspirations for continuing their education and lifelong learning.
Goals
The Department of Nursing prepares graduates to meet the following goals in their entry-level practice with individuals, families, and communities:
- Apply knowledge from the humanities, the arts and letters, social and natural sciences, and nursing to practice competently in a variety of settings;
- Implement independent nursing decisions based on clinical reasoning and nursing judgment, emphasizing safety and positive outcomes;
- Use critical thinking and communication skills to improve the effectiveness of nursing practice, based on current knowledge, theory, and evidence-based practice;
- Emphasize safety, quality, cost effectiveness, and collaboration in nursing practice through a systems approach;
- Design and implement activities that promote, protect, and improve healthy behaviors and emphasize primary and secondary preventive strategies across the lifespan;
- Impact nursing and health care on local, regional, and global populations;
- Advocate for recipients of health care as they participate in decisions about and evaluation of their care through the application of evidence-based practice and information technology;
- Provide leadership in nursing care and health promotion;
- Incorporate knowledge of professional nursing and ethical standards and legal aspects into nursing practice;
- Maintain and increase nursing knowledge and competence by participating in formal and informal education.