Nursing
Purpose Statement
The purpose of the Emory & Henry College School of Nursing is to educate and prepare nurses to be professional leaders in healthcare in Southwest Virginia and beyond. The nursing curriculum is built with the underpinnings of liberal arts, sciences, and nursing which focus on the nursing process to enhance the pedagogical attainment of nursing knowledge, clinical skills, and devotion to the nursing profession.
School of Nursing Mission Statement
The mission of the School of Nursing is to educate nurses through interprofessional collaboration to strive for excellence, integrating science and care to improve health in our communities and world.
School of Nursing Vision Statement
Preparing nursing leaders who promote excellence, competent, and compassionate care.
School of Nursing Philosophy
Emory & Henry College is coeducational, church-related liberal arts college with a commitment in providing education in a caring environment. The nursing philosophy embodies faculty belief of nursing education and professional practice as recognized through the nursing metaparadigm of person, environment, health, and nursing. The nursing program embraces development of the whole person: ethical, intellectual, moral, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual. The nursing faculty will provide supportive, individualized awareness to assist students to attain learning goals and self-direction in achieving their professional nursing goals and education. Students will be active participants in their learning process through collaborative encounters inter-professionally, intra-professionally, and with the community to provide evidence based, patient-centered nursing care.
Professional education is instrumental in the achievement of a focused, specialized level of knowledge with an emphasis in a discipline through a commitment to ethical, social, and scholarly professional standards. It cultivates the acceptance of accountability for clinical judgement, critical thinking, and decision-making relevant to the level of professional nursing practice. Nursing education fosters students to promote and provide culturally-competent, ethical, evidence-based, and spiritually appropriate patient-centered care to diverse populations in the community.
The knowledge of nursing is procured through aesthetic, empirical, ethical, personal, and social knowing. The environment of education promotes scholarly inquiry and enables students to become knowledgeable to care for individuals throughout the lifespan. The education for preparing baccalaureate professional nursing practice is derived from a program of studies in behavioral and physical sciences, humanities, and nursing sciences. Students in the nursing program will be competent practitioners with a variety of skills, the ability to make sound clinical judgement based on data and current evidence-based practices, as well as develop respect for the intrinsic worth of human beings, contemplate their own personal values and attitudes, and develop a commitment to the profession of nursing and lifelong learning.
Nursing students at the undergraduate baccalaureate level are accountable for their individual learning with the unique potential for advancing the profession of nursing.
Nursing faculty serve as facilitators and mentors in the students’ quest of inquiry and knowledge in the learning environment. Nursing faculty exhibit behaviors of professionalism as a reflection of the ethical and legal commitment to the scope and standards of nursing practice.
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework for the Emory & Henry College School of Nursing is based on the nursing metaparadigm concepts of person, health, environment, and nursing. The definition of metaparadigm is “The concepts that identify the phenomena of central interest to a discipline; the propositions that describe these concepts and their relationships to each other” (Farlex & Partners, 2009)
The four concepts of the metaparadigm provide a holistic view to concentrate on the whole person, the health and welfare of the person, the internal and external environment, and the obligation of the nurse to the person.
Concepts:
Person – The person is regarded as an individual to be treated with dignity, respect, nurtured and valued to maintain the right to make informed decisions concerning their health and well-being. The structure of care encompasses the physical, cultural, mental, social, and spiritual needs of the person.
Health – The health of the person evolves throughout the lifespan. Health is viewed to comprise the physical, mental, emotional, psychological, social, intellectual, and spiritual wellness of the person. Consideration of these areas is optimal for the benefits and welfare in the outcomes for the person.
Environment – The environment is viewed as the physical space and surroundings which have an impact on the person and can be affected internally and externally. Factors which can influence the environment may include culture, interpersonal relationships, social status, educational level, socioeconomic status, geographical setting, genetics, immune function, and politics, to name a few.
Nursing – The nursing component focuses on the values of service and what the nurse does in providing care for the individual to promote optimal health outcomes. This involves the development of a relationship with the person, providing a safe and caring environment, determining evidence-based nursing interventions and actions for the provision of care. This is accomplished through the skills, knowledge, communication and collaborations, professional judgment and decision-making, critical thinking skills, and the use of technology which is acquired through education and practice.