Philosophy

In accordance with the philosophy of Humboldt State University, we believe that baccalaureate nursing education for the professional nurse should encompass a broad background in the liberal arts and sciences.

The faculty believes that the professional nurse, in addition to demonstrating expertise in practice, should be able to think critically, act independently and responsibly, recognize the unique qualities of each client, make a socially significant and personally gratifying contribution to society, and function in a manner consistent with a consciousness of the relationship of the individual to the total environment. The faculty believes that the focus of nursing is on the client as an individual, family or community. We believe that the client constantly interacts with the environment and adapts in situations of health and illness throughout the life span. The faculty has organized the curriculum based on views of client, health, environment and nursing. This philosophy is influenced by the theory of Modeling and Role Modeling (Erickson, Tomlin and Swain, 1983). The Society for the Advancement of Modeling and Role-Modeling has more information.

Client - Every individual has multiple subsystems which are biophysical, psychological, sociocultural, and cognitive. Permeating all subsystems are each individual's unique genetic makeup and spiritual drive. We believe that the client of nursing may be an individual, family or community, and that families and communities also exhibit collective subsystems which are biophysical, psychological, sociocultural, and cognitive. We believe that the client is holistic in that each individual/family/community is more that the sum of these subsystems. The client has an instinctual capacity for growth and development and an inherent desire to fulfill self-potential. In addition, each client has self care knowledge and self care resources. Through self care action, internal and external resources are mobilized to achieve health.

Health - The faculty believes that a client's health is not merely and absence of disease or infirmity but rather a dynamic equilibrium among the subsystems. Health is achieved through successful adaptation as the client responds to life stressors. Health and illness coexist on dual continua, demonstrating that each client has varying potentials and responses to both at any time.

Environment - The environment provides a context for the expression and satisfaction of basic need and for the processes of biophysical, psychosocial and cognitive development. Stressors requiring adaptation and resources for adapting are factors which rise from the environment. These factors may be intra person, interpersonal, or extra personal.

Nursing - Nursing is an interactive process between a client and a nurse. Nursing activities are directed toward helping clients prevent illness and to obtain, maintain, regain or improve health. To advance toward the realization of its goal, nursing must assume a major role in the promotion of health. Through research and collaboration with other health professionals and consumers nursing seeks to improve both the delivery of health care and the quality of health care programs. The faculty believes that nursing is both an art and an applied science based on biological, physical, behavioral, and cultural disciplines.

The process of nursing involves establishing a relationship with the client. The nurse acts as a facilitator to aid the client in identifying, mobilizing, and developing adaptive capabilities. Nursing care involves modeling - attempting to understand and know the client's personal world and appreciating this world from the client's perspective. By doing this, the nurse is able to nurture and accept the client as unique and worthwhile. By being able to identify the client as a combination of subsystems, the nurse will be able to practice from a holistic perspective. Utilizing the nursing process is the most effective method to aid the client's quest for self healing. The nursing process involves assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. By helping clients identify stressors, adaptive potential, and resources within their functional health patterns the nurse can utilize the nursing process to promote health.

It is the intent of the faculty to provide a program with a unique experience in rural health care that produces a graduate capable of assuming beginning level nursing practice in any setting. The impact of the rural environment of the student's leaning creates a practitioner who is self-reliant in functioning and decision making. The graduate will be a generalist capable of working independently, having well-developed assessment and primary prevention skill, having sensitivity to diverse cultural populations, and pursuing the goal of lifelong learning to constantly update knowledge and skills.

Since this baccalaureate nursing program prepares students for leadership roles, emphasis is placed on accountability for behavior of self and peers in providing quality nursing actions. By including peer review responsibility as an integral aspect of the program, we hope to facilitate the maintenance of quality standards of care. Further, through a program which encourages the exploration of relevant nursing issues, the students will gain an appreciation of the significant contributions of nursing to society.

The faculty members realize their responsibility and commitment to provide further education for the registered nurses of the North Coast community. We acknowledge and respect individual differences. Previously acquired skills need not be relearned; they are transferable to the program. In response to the current California law regulating nursing, the background of these previously acquired skill and knowledge is recognized, utilized, and built upon. Therefore, these students focus their learning on the special attributes to be gained from this baccalaureate program, namely resocialization to the role of a baccalaureate nurse. The students acquire additional bio-psycho-socio-cultural theory with which they can restructure nursing goals and broaden their knowledge base for more effective decision making. The student who enters the baccalaureate nursing program with prior experience or education in the health field will be expected to meet the same terminal objectives as other students who are without prior experience.

We believe that the nurse educated with a baccalaureate degree is a knowledgeable and discriminating consumer of research who appreciates the importance of research in formulating a body of knowledge. The graduate critically analyzes theoretical and empirical data, and applies appropriate research findings to improve patient care through the use of the nursing process.

The faculty believes that learning is a continuous process involving development of new insights and resulting in behavioral change. In order to facilitate this process, our educational methods must enable students to learn not only a body of specific knowledge and skills to prepare for a professional career, but also to think creatively and become lifelong self directed learners.

Bruner's concept of discovery learning is consistent with Erickson's approach in Modeling and Role Modeling, in that the teacher assists the students in identifying, mobilizing and developing their capabilities. Therefore, the role of the teacher is to guide the students' discoveries by activating exploratory behavior, or the desire to explore. Since we recognize individual differences among students, we seek to provide a variety of learning experiences designed to foster optimal development of each student's potential. We also recognize that learning is facilitated by a teacher-student relationship based on mutual trust and respect. Learning must be sequenced in such a way that the student is able to grasp concepts, transfer and transform them, and discover relationships between them.

A variety of teaching methods are necessary to enable students to acquire basic technical skills and knowledge upon which the higher skills can be built. We believe that professional preparedness, creative thinking and the motivation for lifelong self directed learning are best accomplished through the coordination of didactic teaching and guided discovery learning. We also believe that baccalaureate nursing education should provide the background necessary for graduate education in nursing. The faculty strives to produce a graduate who functions with competence, autonomy, flexibility and empathy; one who develops interpersonal relations conducive to cooperative and optimal team effort; who respects the dignity and uniqueness or each client and who demonstrates the highest ethical and professional standards of practice. The faculty realizes that in order to support each other and to help students grow to be professional nurturers and facilitators of holistic health, we must nurture and facilitate ourselves, our colleagues and our students to attain the highest level of functioning.