Department of Nursing
Philosophy and Purpose
The university is a comprehensive and diverse place of learning whose fundamental purpose is to develop leadership, knowledge, and service for a global society. The University believes strongly in equality of opportunity and actively invites a diversity of talented students, staff, and faculty from all racial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds to participate in this educational enterprise.
The philosophical tenets of the Department of Nursing have grown out of those that pervade the University and College which are to: develop high-order intellectual and moral qualities among students, facilitate the connection between education and the leadership to ensure highly trained leaders for the work force of the 21st Century and beyond, and produce effective professional and leadership roles in society becoming productive citizens in the national and world community. The Department of Nursing assumes the responsibility for fostering the general purposes of the University which are teaching, research, and service.
The purposes of the baccalaureate program in nursing are to provide: educational preparation for the practice of professional nursing in a variety of settings; and a basis for graduate study and lifelong learning. The Department of Nursing philosophy delineates the faculty's beliefs regarding the nature of the individual, health, environment, nursing, teaching/learning, and baccalaureate nursing education.
Individual: The faculty believes that the individual is a complex bio-psychosocial, cultural, spiritual, being who responds holistically to diverse and changing needs. An individual has thinking and feeling capacities, by which he/she adjusts to the environment. The term individual is used to represent recipients of care and is broad enough to include families, groups, communities, and populations. We believe that individuals use coping behaviors in response to changes in the internal and external environment. The individual is genetically unique, with varying patterns of growth, development, and learning potential that impact responses to environmental stressors. Each individual has inherent dignity, worth and unlimited potential for self-actualization. Actualization of potential depends upon coping abilities as one strives for equilibrium in interacting with others in society. We believe that families, groups, communities, and populations respond to changes in the internal and external environment as it attempts to interact with others in society. Understanding the needs of individuals (families, groups, communities, and populations) is pivotal to ensuring that nurses are able to work effectively as advocates.
Health: We believe health is a state of being and individuals have a right to opportunities to maintain a positive state of health. Culture defines the meaning of health and health care practices for each individual, family, group, community, and population. However, the individual, family, group and community as consumers of healthcare retain ultimate responsibility for maintenance of optimal health, as well as the choice of death with dignity. The goal of health services is to enable the individual, family, group, community, and population to adapt to stressors in a way that facilitate movement in a positive direction along the wellness-illness continuum. We believe the wellness-illness continuum ranges from high level wellness to extreme states of illness. Interventions to promote high level wellness are directed toward maximizing the health potentials of the individual, family, group, community, and populations. Health care delivery requires sensitivity to needs (physiological, psychological, safety, effective care environment, and health promotion) of the individual, family, group, community, and population. The faculty recognizes that health care delivery is impacted by changes in societal trends, demographic changes, political issues, as well as technological advancements. The faculty believes that with nursing intervention every individual, family, group, community, and population is capable of achieving optimal health. The attainment of optimal health for the selected individual, family, group, community, or population is promoted at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention and impacted by the availability of physical, mental, spiritual, technological, economical, cultural, and sociopolitical resources.
Environment: The faculty comprehends the environment as the world within and around the individual, family, groups, and community. The individual, family, group, community, and population's point along the wellness-illness continuum is determined by the adaptive or ineffective responses to stressors in the environment. The faculty believes that there is ongoing, simultaneous interaction between the environment and health which determines where the individual, family, group, community, or population is on the wellness-illness continuum. The environment alters health which in turn alters the environment. The environment has physiological, psychological, spiritual, social, technological and cultural aspects that interact with the individual and can local as well as global implications for health and healthcare. We believe that a community focused approach that include practice settings not limited to acute care settings should be utilized to address the needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations. Nurses engage in therapeutic nursing interventions in a variety of settings to manage, modify, and manipulate the internal and external environmental dimensions to promote optimal heath and prevent disease. We believe the individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations' responses to internal and external environmental stimuli are affected by the availability of physical, mental, spiritual, technological, economical, cultural, and sociopolitical resources.
Nursing: Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations (ANA, 2004). Nursing is a science and an art based on principles from the biological, physical, behavioral, liberal arts, and nursing sciences. The goal of nursing is to assist the individual, family, group, community, and populations to achieve and maintain optimal functioning throughout the lifespan. We believe that nursing is client-centered and encompasses specific activities to promote health at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention. The faculty views nursing as a human service existing as a socially significant force to achieve desired client outcomes through nursing interventions and multidisciplinary collaboration. Nursing practice is theory-based and use best practices to promote adaptation for the individual, family, group, community, and population. The faculty asserts that best practice is derived from the synthesis of research utilization and conduction of research. Thus, evidence-based practice is a combination of best practice, clinical expertise, and consideration of the individual's preferences/values as the basis for clinical decision making (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2005).
The profession of nursing utilizes theories of communication, change, leadership, teaching-learning, research methodology and technological advancement in the facilitation of optimal health potential for individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations.
We recognize that the practice of nursing incorporates essential roles that include caregiver, educator, counselor, advocate, change agent, leader, collaborator, and researcher. We subscribe to the nursing process as a clinical decision making tool which incorporates assessment, nursing diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation to provide quality nursing care. Priorities for nursing care are determined by basic needs which are common to all individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations. It is the responsibility of the nurse to function within legal/ethical boundaries to be personally and professionally accountable, and provide an environment that supports individuality, cultural diversity, mutual respect, and dignity. Nursing practice is guided by the standards and regulations of individual states and territories and as determined by national professional organizations, such as American Nurses' Association (ANA), Alabama Board of Nursing (ABN), National League of Nursing (NLNAC), and Essentials of Baccalaureate Nursing.
Teaching/Learning: Learning is the continuous acquisition of knowledge, skills and attributes that result in measurable changes in the behavior of the learner. We believe that learning occurs when the learner perceives educational experiences as meaningful and directed towards attainable goals. We believe that teaching and learning should be evidence-based, incorporating best practices, student learning styles, and values to determine the most effective teaching strategies for the students. We recognize that an effective teaching learning process is based on consideration of each learner's unique needs. This requires a collaborate effort that recognizes prior educational and experiential learning, identifies individual learning styles, and creates an environment conducive to the learning process. The active process of learning occurs in three domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor.
The teacher fosters learning by offering a variety of learning experiences which facilitates the learner to think critically and evaluate their progress. The teacher functions as a professional role-model in the classroom and clinical settings and maintains expertise by engaging in professional growth activities.
The educational process is a conjoint effort of faculty and students that fosters life-long self-directed learning, critical thinking abilities, and personal and professional growth. The faculty believes that ongoing assessment of student learning outcomes provides data for evaluating and improving the educational process.
Baccalaureate Nursing Education: The baccalaureate degree nursing program prepares graduates for leadership roles and graduate study in nursing. The graduate is prepared to utilize theory and evidenced based knowledge in the provision of care to the individual, family, group, and community in a global society with flexibility to adapt to the changing nature of health care biomedical advances, diverse population and technology and health care roles. The graduate is also prepared to coordinate care across multiple settings, managing the interactions between and among components of an integrated network of health care services.
Nursing education emphasizes the use of the nursing process to provide care to individuals of all ages, at all points along the wellness-illness continuum, and in a variety of health care settings. Societal mandates dictate the need to prepare graduates with the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities to respond to changing complexities of the environment (i.e. biomedical advances, diverse populations, technological advances).
