Our Philosophy

Guiding Concepts and Goals

 Core Concepts | Process Concepts | Educational Goals

The four core concepts that are central to the content development of the curriculum are the person, environment, health, and nursing. The concepts are defined through interaction across the lifespan as follows:

Person refers to individuals, families, and communities interacting with environments across the lifespan. All individuals possess worth and dignity and have unique capabilities for reasoning, adapting to change, and advancing through developmental stages in order to maximize their potential. Families and communities influence the health and health decisions of their members through social, moral, spiritual, and cultural values.

Environment comprises internal and external contexts and processes that have an impact on people. Environment includes physical, psychological, social, spiritual and cultural elements, as well as the conceptual space in which nursing is needed, implemented, and evaluated. Environment also includes the historical, political, and economic conditions through which systems of care evolve.

Health is a dynamic state of physical, mental and social well-being, defined in accordance with cultural norms and goals, that influence the relationships and interactions of the individual, family, and community.

Nursing is an evidence-based health care discipline with clinicians and scientists who promote optimal health across the life span. Nurses exercise clinical judgment to provide care effectively and efficiently. Nursing practice is tailored to the person and is caring, sensitive to diversity, mutually determined, and accountable to the profession and society.

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Interwoven with the core concepts that determine content are those process concepts that nursing uses to maintain and improve the health of persons in their environment. These processes include diversity, inquiry, professionalism, leadership, communication, systems and ethics and are conceptualized as follows:

Diversity incorporates culturally and linguistically appropriate care and access to care for all, unrestricted by considerations of gender, age, socioeconomic class, religious belief, sexual orientation, and physical disabilities, as well as race and ethnicity.

Inquiry is the process of seeking, developing, and applying knowledge. Inquiry includes the nursing process, scientific process, and research process. It also includes critical thinking, a deliberate and systematic process, which involves analysis and interpretation, inductive and deductive reasoning, drawing logical inferences, and evaluating and justifying conclusions.

Professionalism in nursing requires a body of knowledge, service to others, advocacy, autonomy, self-regulation, a code of ethics, participation in professional societies, and commitment to life-long learning.

Leadership refers to the use of knowledge, personal traits, and social networks to constructively and ethically influence others toward a vision or goal.

Communication in nursing is a continuous dynamic process by which information is exchanged between and among people and their environments in order to understand others and to be understood.
Systems include an organized group of related components that form a whole. An integrated healthcare system combines patients/clients, clinicians, healthcare organizations and other services to provide coordinated continuing primary, secondary and tertiary care to a population.

include values, codes, and principles that govern decisions in behavioral relationships, nursing education, research, and practice.

Connecting the central and process concepts is the overarching desired outcome of Quality Health Care that should be safe, effective, patient/client-centered, timely, efficient, equitable, and evidence-based. Components of Quality Health Care are defined as:

• • Safe - avoiding injuries to patients/clients from the care that is intended to help them.
  • Effective - providing services based on scientific knowledge to all who could benefit, avoiding under use and overuse of services.
  • Patient/client-centered - providing care in a patient-provider partnership that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and ensuring that patient participation is included in all possible clinical decisions.
  • Timely - reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays for both those who receive and those who provide care.
  • Efficient - avoiding waste, including waste of equipment, supplies, ideas, and energy.
  • Equitable - providing care that does not vary in quality because of personal characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, geographic location, and socioeconomic status.
  • Evidence-based - basing clinical decisions on the best available research evidence, including the generation of new knowledge. Evidence is determined by clinical literature and consensus of clinical experts, also incorporating patient preferences.

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Undergraduate Education

The undergraduate program prepares the baccalaureate graduate for general professional nursing practice and future leadership roles. Related coursework in the sciences and humanities provides a foundation and/or enhancement of the professional nurse's education. Nursing concepts move from simple to complex throughout the undergraduate curriculum. The upper division nursing curriculum is organized sequentially using the core and process concepts. Within the "Lifespan" courses, person and health care are presented across the lifespan at the junior level, and groups and communities are added at the upper division levels. Likewise, the scope of the environment in which an individual interacts expands as the concept "person" develops to include families, groups, and communities. Process concepts of diversity, inquiry, professionalism, leadership, communication, systems and ethics are introduced in the "Foundation" courses and threaded throughout the undergraduate program. Provision of quality health care is the unifying concept.

Graduate Education

Graduate education at the master's level builds on the knowledge and competencies acquired in baccalaureate education and upper division level nursing education. Graduate master's education includes two MSN tracks, the generalist clinical nurse leader and the specialist advanced practice nurse. Graduates are prepared for outcomes-based practice as highly skilled clinicians in diverse health care settings. Graduate education provides an understanding of health care policy, organization, and financing of health care systems, enabling evolving responses to a changing health care environment. An increased focus on global awareness and culturally and linguistically appropriate care develops an understanding and appreciation of human diversity in health and illness. Integrating and applying communication and inquiry skills to applied research and theory broadens the foundation for a comprehensive and holistic approach to care. Professionalism in the graduate program, exploring autonomy in practice, and evolving ethical situations furnishes the framework for decision making in clinical nursing practice. Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) graduates are nursing professionals for generalist practice prepared to integrate the core and process concepts as leaders in a variety of health care settings. In addition to the core and process concepts, graduates of advanced practice nursing education are prepared to demonstrate competencies for specialty practice. Provision of quality care is inherent in master's outcomes-based practice.

Doctoral Education

Doctoral education in nursing builds on practice, theory and research skills gained in baccalaureate and master's education in nursing and health care. The purpose of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program is to prepare graduate level nurses for expert evidence-based practice in leadership and clinical roles. The Doctor of Nursing Practice program offers advanced coursework and mentored experiences that assist students in using the core and process concepts, with a specific focus on applying research knowledge and methods to create, implement, and evaluate evidence-based nursing practice to develop quality health care delivery systems.

The purpose of the PhD Program in Nursing is to prepare researchers who will contribute both to the development and application of knowledge in nursing. The PhD program offers advanced coursework and mentored experiences that assist students in analyzing, using, and translating central and process concepts in building a research program. Doctoral programs emphasize interdisciplinary experiences to create and implement knowledge to support quality health care. Nurses prepared at the doctoral level contribute to an improved quality of teaching, research, practice and a published body of knowledge that comprise nursing science.

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