Mission Statement of the Nursing Program
San Bernardino Valley College

The mission of the Associate Degree Nursing Program at San Bernardino Valley College is to provide a comprehensive, quality instructional program to assist students to achieve their vocational goal of becoming Registered Nurses.
 

Philosophy of the Nursing Program

The faculty accepts the following as a basis for preparing students to enter into the field of nursing.

Beliefs about Individuals
An individual is an interacting open system composed of socio-cultural, developmental, psychological, and physiological variables. Each individual has the potential to maintain varying degrees of equilibrium by using lines of defense in response to the internal and/or external stressors of a changing environment. Thus, individuals are capable of adapting to and/or modifying real or potential threats to their stability.

Beliefs about Nursing
Nursing is a unique profession concerned with the socio-cultural, developmental, psychological, and physiological variables affecting a client's response to stressors. The main goal of nursing is to assist individuals, families, and significant others to retain or achieve an optimal level of wellness. In addition, nursing supports the dignity of the individual, family, and significant others during the death experience. Using knowledge from nursing and related disciplines, nursing interventions are aimed at the management of stressors, and/or strengthening the lines of defense and resistance. In achieving these goals, nurses use the Nursing Process as the mode of practice for primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. The client is a participant in all phases of the nursing process.

Beliefs about Wellness-Illness
Health is viewed as a continuum, from wellness to illness. The client's position on the continuum is dynamic and dependent upon varying amounts of stress. Minimal stress is conducive to wellness; maximum stress causes illness or death. As the client's degree of stress is increased or decreased, the position on the continuum changes accordingly. The phases of the continuum correlate with primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention/intervention modes. Primary defines actions to retain stability, secondary defines actions to attain stability, and tertiary defines actions to maintain stability.

Beliefs about Nursing Education
Nursing education is an open system that builds on knowledge from science and related disciplines. This is best accomplished in an institution of higher learning. The system is flexible, allowing for multiple points of entry. The purpose of nursing education is to develop competencies and attitudes that assist students to become successful beginning-level healthcare providers. Learning is an active and continuous process that proceeds from simple to complex. Cognitive abilities, coping strategies, beliefs, values and environmental stressors influence the rate and capacity for learning. Learning is facilitated through a variety of instructional methods to maximize the acquisition of knowledge and skills and foster critical thinking. In collaboration with the student, the educator facilitates student learning, considers individual learning styles, coordinates supportive services, organizes and provides quality learning experiences, and evaluates educational outcomes.

Rationale for the Teaching-Learning Process
Learning is best accomplished in small segments that are related to previously learned knowledge. The educator is the facilitator of the learning process. It is the student’s responsibility to acquire the knowledge/concepts that result in new insights and desired behavioral changes.

Multiple teaching methods are used to facilitate student learning and foster critical thinking. Instructional methods vary in order to adapt to individual learning styles that are affected by cognitive processes, past experiences, beliefs, and values of diverse cultural and ethnic groups. The educator's role is to; 1. provide quality learning experiences which promote acquisition of nursing knowledge, skills, critical thinking, effective communication, and accountability for nursing practice; and 2. evaluate learning achieved.

Roles of the Associate Degree Nursing Graduate
The Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) graduate functions as a beginning healthcare provider. The graduate manages the care of clients with common, complex nursing problems. The graduate uses multiple skills to formulate and carry out the plan of care, which incorporates the socio-cultural, developmental, psychological, and physiological variables. Roles of the ADN graduate are: provider of care, manager of client care, and member within the discipline of nursing.

The ADN graduate

• provides, manages, and coordinates client care activities within the healthcare setting.

• uses therapeutic communication skills in carrying out the plan of care which incorporates the physiological, psychological, developmental, and socio-cultural variables.

• collaborates with other healthcare providers using commonly available resources.

• is accountable for his/her nursing practice within an ethical and legal framework.

• participates in developing and revising agency policies and in improvement of quality care.

• is responsible for own professional self-development.

• assists or participates in nursing research under direction and applies current research to practice.
   

Copyright © 2002, San Bernardino Valley College. All rights reserved