Mission for the Department of Nursing

The mission of the department is to define, provide, and advance the education for the development of professionals within the fields of nursing and allied health. The mission of the nursing program is to provide undergraduate and graduate education for students whose academic and professional goals are directed toward a career in professional nursing. The program challenges students to develop their abilities to provide care for culturally diverse populations with changing health needs. Undergraduate students have a liberal education, are clinically competent, and are prepared to function at a beginning level of professional practice. Graduate students are prepared for leadership roles. The nursing faculty supports the expansion of nursing science through scholarly work, and fosters a commitment to lifelong learning and community service.

Philosophy for the Department of Nursing

The philosophy of the programs of Nursing is consistent with the mission of Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the College of Health and Human Services. The philosophy is informed by Neuman’s systems model from which the working definitions of the major nursing paradigms (person, environment, health, illness, and nursing) are drawn. The faculty is committed to providing a high quality professional education that builds on a base of liberal studies and promotes life-long learning.

The person is an open system that interacts with the environment and its stressors in an effort to seek and maintain health. The “person” indicates the recipients of care by nurses: individuals, families, groups and communities. Each person is a synergistic blend of body, mind and spirit with unique beliefs, ideals and expectations. Each person has inherent worth and dignity, is entitled to personal beliefs, and has the right to make choices about health care. Many variables influence how life is experienced. Some of these variables include race, age, gender, religion, environment, genetic heritage, culture, and socioeconomic status. In addition the person is in a constant state of interaction with the internal and external forces that surround them. Stressors in these environments may enhance or diminish the person’s health depending on the current state of the person’s defenses.

Health is a dynamic balance towards which the person continually strives. It is viewed within the person’s physical, psychological, sociocultural, developmental and spiritual parameters. The person’s health is determined by the ability to adapt to changes in the environment and maintain dynamic equilibrium. Health is a fundamental right of each person who assumes responsibility for maintenance of health through choices. Health care resources are used by the person to achieve integrated function.

The nursing profession has evolved as an art and science over time. The primary aim of nursing is the stability of the person system. The essence of nursing is caring for and nurturing the person. As a profession, nursing is concerned with the internal and external variables that affect human responses to stressors. They base their practice on ethical and legal frameworks that guide relationships established with recipients of care and on their awareness of nursing’s place in the global health system. As critical thinkers, nurses assess situations, define problems, identify goals and evaluate care provided by self and other. Mastery of communication skills and the ability to think critically are basic to professional nursing practice.

Graduates of the baccalaureate program are prepared as beginning practitioners of nursing who can integrate principles from the physical, behavioral and social sciences into their practice. These nurses are able to function interdependently within an established system, to recognize areas where change is needed, to initiate action to affect change, and to act in a collaborative role with other health care providers and consumers. Graduates of the master's program are prepared as advanced practitioners of nursing, with specialized practice within communities. These graduates are prepared to function in leadership roles in a variety of health care settings, to contribute to the development of nursing knowledge and to advance the profession.

Outcomes and Definitions for Baccalaureate Degree

The outcomes of assessment, communication, critical thinking, assessment skills, and professional role development are defined, per AACN, below.

Assessment: gathering information about the health status of the patient, analyzing and synthesizing those data, making judgments about nursing interventions based on the findings, and evaluating patient care outcomes. Assessment also includes understanding the family, community, or population and utilizing data from organizations and systems in planning and delivering care.

Communication: is a complex, ongoing, interactive process and forms the basis for building interpersonal relationships. Communication includes listening, as well as oral, nonverbal, and written communication skills.

Critical thinking: underlies independent and interdependent decision-making. Critical thinking includes questioning, analysis, synthesis, interpretation, inference, inductive and deductive reasoning, intuition, application and creativity.

Technical skills: skill development should focus on the mastery of core scientific principles that underlie all skills, thus preparing the graduate to incorporate current and future technical skills into other nursing responsibilities, and apply skills in diverse contexts of health care delivery. Acquisition and use of technical skills are required for delivery of nursing care. The graduate should be able to perform, teach, delegate, and supervise these skills with safety and competence.

Professional Role Development: AACN Definition- Nurses are members of a profession. The term professional implies the acquisition and use of well-delineated and broad knowledge base for practice. Professional nursing requires strong critical thinking, communication and assessment skills, and the demonstration of a balance of intelligence, confidence, understanding, and compassion. Membership in the profession requires the development and acquisition of an appropriate set of values and an ethical framework. As advocates for high quality care for all individuals, nurses must be knowledgeable and active in the political and regulatory processes defining health care delivery and systems of care. Nurses also must be committed to life-long learning and be willing to assume responsibility for planning their professional careers, including graduate study as the route to advancement. While the context of nursing practice is changing significantly, the role to the beginning professional nurse continues to encompass three broad areas: provider of direct and indirect care to individuals, families, groups, communities and populations; designer, manager, and coordinator of care; and member of a profession. (Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice, p. 6)