The faculty of Bryan College of Health Sciences, School of Nursing, believes:
Nursing
Nursing is an art and science, the embodiment of caring for individuals, families, and communities. It consists of a unique, integrated body of knowledge and requires clinical judgment as well as the judicious use of information management. Working within their scope of practice, the professional nurse’s identity includes providing comprehensive, individualized care to promote optimal health, based on research and evidence-based practice. Nurses are leaders who collaborate with, and delegate to, members of the interprofessional healthcare team to advocate for processes and systems to support safe, compassionate, and quality care.
Human Beings
Human beings are unique and multidimensional beings with inherent worth and dignity. Nurses see clients through the lens of wholeness and interconnectedness and develop caring and healing relationships. Nurses understand that humans have the capacity to care, to learn, and to change. Human beings are autonomous and therefore are responsible for their own behaviors. Therefore, individuals, families, and communities have the right to define their own health. The interaction between human beings and the environment is dynamic.
Health
Health is a dynamic state of holistic well-being, influenced by biological, behavioral, and environmental factors and perceived through the context of the lived experience. Nurses appreciate how the social, political, and economic environment influences health; attending to what is most important to well-being; and honoring personal dignity, choice, and meaning. The nurse’s generation, synthesis, translation, application and dissemination of nursing scholarship and research improves health and transforms healthcare.
Education
Nursing is grounded in a unique body of knowledge. A liberal arts education creates the foundation for developing intellectual and practical abilities within the context of nursing practice as well as preparing students for engagement with the larger community, locally and globally. Students are exposed to a broad worldview, multiple disciplines, and ways of knowing through specific coursework. A hallmark of liberal education is the development of a personal value system that includes the ability to act ethically regardless of the situation. Students are encouraged to define meaningful personal and professional goals with a commitment to integrity, equity, and social justice. Successful integration of liberal and nursing education provides graduates with knowledge of human cultures, including spiritual beliefs, as well as the physical and natural worlds supporting an informed approach to practice. (BSN Essentials, 2021).
Professional Nursing Education
Professional nursing education is built on an integrated study of a liberal arts education. Information literacy is integrated throughout the core nursing curriculum as a foundation for evidence based practice. Graduates are well prepared to integrate knowledge, skills, and values from the arts, sciences and humanities to provide safe quality care; advocate for patients, families, communities, and populations; and promote health equity and social justice. Lifelong learning strengthens the skills and knowledge necessary to enhance clinical judgment and improve patient care.
Nursing education seeks to ensure an understanding of the intersection of bias, structural racism, and social determinants with healthcare inequities and promote a call to action. By providing a diverse and global perspective and raising the professional and social conscience of our students, they will become health care leaders. (adapted from University of Pittsburgh, School of Nursing, 2022)