The Bachelor of Science in Nursing program prepares the graduate to:

  1. Integrate concepts and ways of knowing from the arts and sciences in promoting health and managing nursing care across the wellness-illness continuum.
  2. Demonstrate value-based professional behaviors that integrate empathy, autonomy, integrity, social justice, equity as well as respect for diversity and inclusion, human rights, and human dignity through cultivating partnerships with patients, families and communities.
  3. Deliver and advocate for health equity through health promotion, care coordination and disease prevention strategies at the individual, family, community, and population levels.
  4. Apply leadership concepts, skills, and decision making in the provision and oversight of nursing practice in a variety of settings.
  5. Appraise, critically summarize and translate current evidence into nursing practice.
  6. Demonstrate integration of nursing scholarship, critical thinking, clinical decision making, and psychomotor skills necessary for the delivery of competent, safe, evidence-based, holistic, compassionate and high quality care to individuals, families, communities and populations across the lifespan.
  7. Translate principles of safety and quality improvement into the delivery of high quality care to individuals, families, communities, and populations.
  8. Utilize information, communication and patient care technology tools to facilitate clinical decision-making and the delivery of safe, effective and high quality nursing care.
  9. Demonstrate effective professional communication and collaboration within and across disciplines and with the public to optimize health outcomes.
  10. Demonstrate an understanding of how health policy, economic, legal, political, and socio-cultural factors influence the delivery of and advocacy for equitable health care.
  11. Demonstrate critical interrogation of positionality, recognition of implicit biases, as well as knowledge and application of anti-racism principles to promote health equity.

To support and document accomplishing these goals, each graduating student is required to evaluate the program, including how well program goals were accomplished. This evaluation will become a part of the student's record of accomplishment in the program.

Approved May 2019

Philosophy of undergraduate education

The Nursing faculty believes that the purpose of university-based undergraduate healthcare education is to prepare healthcare professionals whose practice is informed by theory and research. The philosophy of the undergraduate curriculum is rooted in values of excellence, diversity, community, social justice, integrity, and creativity. Preparation for the various roles in practice requires knowledge of the arts, sciences, and humanities, together with content and processes specific to the discipline. An interdisciplinary emphasis engages students in a broad range of ideas and knowledge. Ultimately, professional nursing requires a commitment to scholarly inquiry, social equity, advocacy, and life-long learning.

The members of the faculty believe that their teaching styles need to take into account the diverse nature of how students learn. We are a community of learners and scholars — a community that is created in collaboration with students.

The curriculum focuses on critical thinking and analysis, communication, and diversity. The baccalaureate degree enables a nurse to assume a leadership role and practice from an evidence base. Graduates collaborate with transdisciplinary teams in complex organizational systems to improve health care access, cost, and quality. The curriculum prepares graduates to competently work in partnership with individuals, families, communities, and populations to promote health locally and globally.

Approved January 2008