MISSION STATEMENT, VISION STATEMENT, AND PHILOSOPHY
Mission Statement
The mission of the School of Nursing is to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and skills required as professional nurses to competently and holistically meet individual, family, and community needs in a variety of settings; assume increasing responsibilities across a continuum of care; make critical decisions based on sound nursing judgment, and assume leadership roles in collaboration with other members of the healthcare team.
Vision Statement
The vision of the School of Nursing is to become one of Georgia's regional leaders in the education of professional nurses.
Philosophy
Nursing is an art and a science. The art of nursing is reflected when individuals are viewed as unique beings, inseparable from and in constant interaction with the environment. The science of nursing is the practice of safe quality patient centered care using evidence-based practice as a foundation to promote health and positive patient outcomes that will facilitate ongoing growth as human beings. Professional nurses participate and examine research to develop critical nursing judgment and demonstrate leadership within the healthcare team. Central to the essence of nursing is caring which facilitates optimal human functioning through promoting, maintaining, and restoring health and preventing illness.
The School of Nursing will prepare graduates who demonstrate a commitment to professional nursing and ongoing education that cultivates the ability to analyze, evaluate and synthesize knowledge in order to provide care for individuals, families, and communities.
Faculty Beliefs and Foundations
The nursing faculty believes that our fundamental commitment is to foster a learning community of excellence that promotes and values interdisciplinary collaboration, critical thinking, clinical reasoning, patient safety, quality healthcare, and the use of evidence-based practice in diverse settings. In addition graduates of the school of nursing should be able to integrate professional development, research, health promotion, community health, leadership skills and professional values into nursing practice within a global learning community. This commitment of excellence stems from the faculty adoption and integration of the following entities: (a) NLN core values, (b) NLN's competencies for nursing, (c) Quality and Safety Education for Nurses Institute and (d) the Institute of Medicine recommendations for nursing education.
Individuals
Fundamental to an effective learning process is the recognition that each individual approaches learning with a unique background of formal and experiential knowledge. Students represent a diverse range of ages, cultures, socioeconomic and ethnic characteristics that are reflective of the larger community. The faculty is committed to creating an environment in which diversity is embraced as a source of strength, critical thinking is fostered, and life experience is valued.
Education and Instruction
The nursing faculty subscribe to the fact that nursing education is a dynamic, interactive process best accomplished in an environment that fosters growth by nurturing, engaging, and challenging both student and faculty. Active learning strategies are created to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies to enhance the transition into professional nursing. These strategies foster the development of a professional identity through critical thought, inquiry, self-awareness, communication, advocacy, and empowerment. These strategies are incorporated into the nursing curriculum by use of classroom interactions, computer activities, clinical simulation, acute care experiences, and through the development of professional relationships, which assist students to achieve educational outcomes and develop a spirit of inquiry. In an ever evolving healthcare community, faculty are required to revise and adapt teaching strategies to accommodate current and emerging concepts applicable to diverse students and healthcare systems. Along with evidence-based practice and informatics, faculty must also emphasize the importance of professional involvement by incorporating political advocacy, leadership, end-of-life care, and the need for life-long learning into the curriculum.
Practice
Nursing practice centers on the health care needs of individuals, families, and groups in many diverse settings guided by ethical and legal standards of practice. The nurse, as an essential member of the inter-professional team, incorporates sound nursing judgment to ensure the provision of safe and competent care for patients across the lifespan. In addition to providing care, the nurse acts as an advocate for changes in healthcare policy, outcome driven care, and healthcare access for all individuals. The Gordon State College nursing student is prepared for practice through active learning strategies in diverse healthcare settings, which enhance the student's understanding of continuity of care in meeting individual, family, and community needs. Graduates of the School of Nursing recognize their professional commitment to improving healthcare delivery and quality of care through the analysis of current practice trends, discovery of new knowledge, and offering new insights to facilitate change.
In summary, Gordon State College baccalaureate nursing graduates will make a difference in lives of patients across a broad continuum of care in the surrounding communities which they serve and to the world at large. We envision our baccalaureate nursing graduates as professionals who respect the worth and dignity of individuals living within an ethnic, cultural context. The graduate will function as an advocate in service to others, demonstrating competence and integrity. Our aim is to prepare graduates who utilize an intellectually disciplined process in thinking in order to analyze, reason and demonstrate creativity in decision making.
Organizing Framework
The nursing faculty of Gordon State College has designed the nursing curriculum based on concepts derived from nursing practice and changes in health care delivery. The college in general, and the nursing faculty in particular, strive to provide a curriculum that challenges thinking and reasoning, embraces a personal ethic, encourages use of effective communication, develops leadership, and promotes lifelong learning.
The faculty maintains the following beliefs:
- Nursing is a profession based on the nursing process and it is administered through the following interrelated roles of collaborator, manager of care, decision maker, researcher, information manager, and caring.
- Nursing education proceeds from simple to complex. It was founded in the liberal arts and sciences which provide a basis for understanding the complexities of the human experience across the lifespan for the registered nurse progressing toward the BSN degree.
- The concept of person expands to include families, groups and communities. The baccalaureate nurse recognizes the worth and dignity of individuals living within an ethnic, cultural context.
- Interpersonal communication is a humanizing factor that is an innate element of the nursing process and of the communication that occurs between nurses and patients and nurses and professional colleagues.