philosophy of the faculty
The College of Nursing* faculty members endorse the Mission and goals of Indiana State University including the core values of access, service, success, innovation and excellence.
The University Mission supports the development of baccalaureate, graduate, and continuing education programs to meet learning needs of clients in a changing society. Faculty members contribute to the discipline of nursing and to the University through teaching, research, professional service, and community engagement.
Nursing is a discipline whose practice is based on nursing knowledge, the sciences, and the humanities and is guided by the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. It also reflects mandates and nursing care standards from significant nursing education and health organizations such as the American Nurses Association, National League for Nursing, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Indiana State Board of Nursing, and the Pew Health Professions Commission.
Nurses collaborate with other members of the interdisciplinary health care team. Within a variety of roles and learning spaces, nurses assess wellness and health needs and risks of culturally diverse clients throughout the life span. Nursing care goals are mutually established with clients and include promotion of optimal health, prevention or recovery from illness, rehabilitation to maximal health status, and assurance of dignity in the process of dying. Nursing is a vital force in society whose roles affect and are affected by current and emerging health care delivery systems. Knowledge derived from research and other scholarly activities, practice, and societal trends provide direction for client education and for the evolving evidence-based practice of nursing.
Nurses use therapeutic nursing interventions within the context of clinical decision-making to provide culturally sensitive, holistic care for clients. Innovative techniques and information management skills are used to provide safe and accurate care to clients. Using these skills, nurses not only care for clients, but they also respond to the environment in which care occurs. Wellness, health needs, and health risks are best understood in the context of the client’s environment.
Environment is integral to the experience of health. Environment, as a dimension, influences the life and development as well as the wellness and illness of the client. Nurses interact and collaborate with clients to maintain and/or modify the environment to support optimal health. Environment also encompasses the context in which nurses learn and practice.
Health, a dynamic process, occurs in varying degrees of wellness and illness from optimal health to death. Health goals are best achieved through a client-centered, comprehensive, and accessible health care delivery system. As members of a therapeutic and caring discipline, nurses promote high quality health care and the improvement of health care delivery.
Clients are defined as individuals, families, groups, and/or communities. They have basic needs which, when met, support the potential for well-being and optimal health. Clients respond to these needs throughout the life span. Clients meet their own health needs when possible. Nurses collaborate with clients when necessary to meet clients’ needs. Clients interact with the health care delivery system in an effort to promote, maintain and/or restore their needs, including those through the dying process.
Life-long learning is a continuous process building on previous levels of knowledge and experience and is influenced by time, maturation, and differing interests and abilities. Learning is achieved through multiple approaches and is enhanced when the learner actively participates in the process. Teachers facilitate the learning process by serving as resources and foster a climate of intellectual curiosity and critical thinking in an atmosphere conducive to self-direction. Within a climate of mutual respect, students and teachers participate collaboratively in the cooperative enterprises of inquiry, learning, scholarly achievements, and service.
Nursing education provides the nurturing and facilitation of intellectual growth as well as the foundation and evaluation of interpersonal competency, technological skill, and clinical judgment. In response to community need and in support of the opportunity for life-long learning, programs at the College of Nursing allow access to educational opportunities and facilitate educational mobility including multiple entries into the LPN-BS and RN-BS tracks. Student success is promoted by supportive faculty advisement, supplemental instruction services and student support groups, such as the Student Nurses Association.
Baccalaureate nursing education is the minimum qualification for the first professional role in nursing. The baccalaureate nursing program prepares competent nurses to function in the roles of critical thinker, communicator, provider of care, leader, professional, life-long learner, advocate, and coordinator of community resources. Baccalaureate graduates are grounded in evidence-based practice.
Graduate nursing education provides preparation for assumption of advanced practice roles in clinical practice, education, and leadership. Graduate education expands the roles of critical thinker, communicator, advanced provider, leader, professional, life-long learner, advocate, and coordinator of community resources. In addition, graduate education encompasses the role of knowledge contributor. Areas of study include: Family Nurse Practitioner, Nursing Administration, and Nursing Education.
Continuing nursing education embraces the value of life-long learning and promotes excellence in nursing practice by providing quality continuing education for nurses. The continuing nursing education program responds to trends and changes in the health care system. The program is designed to improve health care by providing timely and informative educational activities to expand knowledge and competencies of practicing nurses. Continuing education activities address diversity in nursing and levels of nursing practice.
* Due to the current development of the College of Nursing, Health, and Human Services, the terminology / nomenclature on this web page will be updated when the process is complete and approved by the appropriate entities.