Nursing education is a dynamic, student-centered process that has successfully implemented provides a nurturing environment that fosters cognitive, psychomotor and affective development; a deference for professional collegiality and life-long learning; and an understanding of the intractable importance that the nursing profession holds within our society.
The organizing framework for the School of Nursing is derived from the faculty determined values and philosophy and is comprised of five elemental components. These components are professional identity, values, capacity, process, and sustainability. The components are dynamic, reciprocal, and strengthen each other toward the goal of system homeostasis. These elements underpin every program and provide a basis for the development of program outcomes.
The conceptual model is a graphic representation of the organizing framework -- a system that guides the development and implementation of curricula that are reflective of the mission, vision, values, and philosophy of the School of Nursing. The model demonstrates how each of the elements is operationalized for each program; and how each element increases in complexity and is incorporated as a foundational instructional element relative to the doctoral levels of education.
The first component of professional identity involves the internalization of values, perspectives and practice roles in the delivery of care. Professional identity includes the assessment, management, and coordination of healthcare for individuals, families, groups, communities, and/or populations. Care delivery occurs within the context of dynamic roles with consideration for biological, psychological, sociocultural, developmental, and spiritual contexts.
The Doctorate of Nursing Practice graduate should function independently as an expert practitioner in the provision of direct and indirect, systems-focused care. The doctoral prepared practice expert competently evaluates micro and macro health care systems to effect change in meeting the needs of individuals, families, groups and populations. Independence facilitates the opportunity to work in an unlimited array of healthcare settings. Graduates serve as mentors and leaders on the global stage.
The second component is values. Values are identified as a set of beliefs that guide behaviors, attitudes and moral judgement. Values may be expressed as either personal or professional. Personal values are beliefs cultivated from subjective and objective environmental interactions with familial, group, community, and population sources. Professional values are those beliefs cultivated through reasoning, observation, and experience with nurses and other healthcare members.
The doctorate graduate is prepared as the nursing terminal degree that encompasses all professional role expectations in nursing. Personal values are applied when evaluating and designing health care systems, as well as leading the change of health care systems in response to research translation, population health, and needed policy development.
The third component is capacity. Capacity is identified as the acquisition of personal, procedural and propositional knowledge; whereby, personal knowledge parallels personal experience, personal preferences, and autobiographical facts. Procedural knowledge refers to skills learning. Propositional knowledge refers to general truth claims about the world and how we know it. To aide knowledge generation our curriculum provides a foundation of liberal arts and sciences for the associate and baccalaureate students that facilitates developing an appreciation of each person's interaction with the environment [internal, external or created]