Conceptual Framework

Mission

The mission of the Department of Nursing is to provide the breadth and depth of academic and clinical experiences to prepare registered nurses for advanced clinical practice and leadership roles within the context of a continuously changing health care system. Nurses educated at the baccalaureate level are prepared as nurse generalists able to practice in a variety of settings and clinical situations. Nurses educated at the master’s level are prepared for specialization in roles of nurse managers and administrators and in content areas of nursing and healthcare administration/leadership, transcultural nursing, and community nursing. Nurses prepared at both levels contribute to clinical excellence and quality of care through active participation in continuously raising standards of care in the region.

Philosophy

The philosophy of the Department of Nursing elaborates on our beliefs regarding the metaparadigm of the nursing discipline.

Human Beings

The faculty believes that people are holistic beings whose life-course experiences are integrated into a coherent and understandable pattern of meanings and behaviors. These integrated life patterns influence their perceptions and interactions with their environment. The individual is endowed with many capacities that are dynamic, evolutionary and growth producing. Change and growth in this sense, are uniquely constituted in each person's systems of meanings and values with are shaped by his/her biological, psychological, social and cultural experiences. Understanding the fullness of the individual hinges upon discovery of these systems of meanings and value orientations, inductively drawn from his/her emic worldview. It is this worldview that provides the context for understanding an individual's choices about his/her lifestyle.

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Environment

Apart from being a biological system, an individual is a sentient, social and cultural being whose identity is transformed by interactions with other individuals, family, community, society and the physical environment. Full appreciation of an individual's humanity, therefore, hinges on the realization that the person is more than the sum of his/ her component parts. Individuals have the capacity to create families, communities and societies as well as transform his/her environment. These environmental contexts, in turn, influence the individual members of the group. An individual’s reference group is the context for understanding his/her beliefs, attitudes and habits. Explicating the historic, synchronic and phenomenological variables in each person, family and community is fundamental to the conceptualization of people as holistic and humanistic beings.

Health

Health is a universal concept and yet, the nature, characteristics and meanings are constituted socio-culturally. Health refers to a state of well-being that is culturally defined, valued, and practiced, and reflects a continuum of wellness and illness across the life span. It reflects the ability of individuals or groups to function productively and participate in society’s activities in a manner that is congruent, beneficial and meaningful to their lifeway (Leininger, 1991). Phenomenological, biological, social and cultural dimensions characterize health. The meaning of health is embedded in the emic worldview of the individual, family and society.

Health is characterized by process and outcome. Health is a relative condition achieved through purposeful activities and processes that support a healthy lifestyle. It is an expression or outcome of this healthy life process. In turn, health states are a resource in selecting and pursuing other life goals. Health is a manifestation of complex, multifaceted interactions between humans and their environment, and is conceived to be dynamic, constantly changing and evolving as life itself. Becoming and staying healthy is a life goal, however, the definition of health and the processes that play a role in its achievement have both universal and diverse qualities.

The same conceptualization of health continuum is applicable to health systems. Health in this sense is the system’s ability to function productively with optimal participation by its members in goal achievement. The goal of nursing leadership is to maximize the functional health of systems in providing quality care for populations.

Nursing

Care is the essence of nursing and is the distinct, dominant, central and unifying focus of nursing (Leininger, 1991). Human caring is a universal phenomenon but its nature, characteristics and meanings are culturally defined. Caring consists of assistive, facilitative and enabling acts and decisions by professional nurses, which incorporate the cultural values, meanings and practice of the individual, family and/or community.

Nursing's overriding goal is to assist individuals, families, groups and communities in achieving their health potential. Health goals are subject to human choice and are achieved through culturally congruent, competent and outcomes-oriented care that transcends the continuum of health throughout the individual's life span. Nursing is affirming states of well-being.

Nursing practice is guided by knowledge, theory and research in the discipline of nursing, as well as from a broad base of knowledge from other disciplines. Nursing practice entails the care of the sick in and across all environments, the promotion of health and well-being, and population focused health care. Nursing has both process and outcome. Nursing process is a method grounded in critical thinking, a scientific body of knowledge. It is a collaborative process between caregivers and their clients with emphasis on empathic, humanistic and caring relationships. The outcomes of nursing care are the delivery of competent, culturally-congruent, compassionate, humanistic care.

Nursing’s ideals evolve with changes in society and health care delivery. Aware of the internal and external trends and demands, nurses need to take an active role in defining and shaping health care delivery. Dealing with these mounting challenges and complexities of health care delivery requires that the nurse be committed to life-long learning. The faculty upholds the BSN as entry to professional nursing practice and the MSN as entry to advanced nursing practice.

Key Values

To achieve the mission, key values that guide program development, implementation and evaluation include:

Diversity
Caring
Integrity
Scholarship
Advocacy
Accountability
Androgogy

Diversity:

Valuing diversity is a core paradigm for caring and leadership. Diversity requires that the individual affirm his or her own unique self while learning to respect and address the needs of others who may have different values. Transcultural nursing is characterized by valuing diversity and human dignity. Human dignity is respect for the inherent worth and uniqueness of populations. Valuing diversity incorporates both appreciation of differences and social justice issues within populations.

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Caring:

Care is the essence of nursing and the distinct, dominant, central, and unifying focus of nursing (Leininger, 1991). Caring is viewed as both a content area and a process demonstrated by faculty and students alike. Caring is altruistic in nature and demonstrates a concern for the welfare and well being of others. Values about caring are shaped or constituted culturally and the professional nurse demonstrates an understanding of the universalities and differences in caring. A caring approach includes: knowledge, flexible approaches based on the care-recipient’s emic perspective, patience, honesty, trust, humility, hope and courage.

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Integrity:

The nurse recognizes integrity as the cornerstone for clinical practice and leadership, followership, and learning. Integrity encompasses a commitment to people (staff, student, families, community), consistency in word and action and adherence to the professional nursing code of ethics and professional nursing standards of practice.

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Scholarship:

The nurse acquires depth and breadth of knowledge for expert practice in professional nursing, transcultural nursing care and leadership. The scholarly practitioner adopts a scientific rigor in approaching clinical practice and academic endeavors. Faculty serve as mentors to students in assisting them to bridge the world of academe and practice and adopt an evidence-based frame of practice. Knowledge is recognized not only as tested knowledge, but also, as intuitive inquiry with knowledge yet to be discovered. Life-long learning is a characteristic of the scholarly practitioner and the individual who is always working toward a higher level of integration.

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Advocacy:

Advocacy is an inherent element of nursing ethics and the legal defintion of nursing practice. Advocacy arises from a meaningful and respectful relationship between the nurse and others. Advocacy requires that the nurse understand the emic perspective of the client and that strategies of care be adopted which are flexible and accommodate for variations in a range of sociocultural factors. As an advocate, the nurse is responsible for safeguarding, promoting and supporting the client’s lifeways, values, and decisions. Processes and skills needed to successfully advocate for clients include accountability, ethical analysis and decision making, awareness and adherence to clinical standards and legal definitions of nursing practice, health teaching, health counseling, leadership, collaboration, communication, and ability to implement change.

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Accountability:

Accountability is the hallmark of professional practice and it requires that a proactive approach be adopted.Accountability occurs at four levels: performance-based accountability (accomplishing the expected goals, objectives, outcomes); process accountability (responsibility for relationships and working together with others); peer-support accountability (responsibility for supporting others and facilitating interdependency of work); and, personal accountability (responsibility to set personal standards for taking initiatives above and beyond the normal call of duty).

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Androgogy:

Androgogy is the approach to teaching within the DON. Androgogy is rooted in adult-learning principles. As such, the teacher moves away from the role of prescriber, transmitter and evaluator of learning and moves towards that of a facilitator and resource for self-directed learners. Furthermore, the faculty recognize that diverse students possess diverse cognitive styles and modes of learning and are committed to preparing teaching strategies which facilitate these diverse needs and maximize individual student achievement.

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