Organizing Framework

Nursing is an avenue that provides an opportunity for individuals, families, and communities to achieve wellness through the application of the nursing process. The nursing process is the methodology upon which the practice of nursing is based. It consists of five interrelated steps: assessment, nursing diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Effective implementation of the nursing process requires cognitive, psychomotor, and affective behaviors derived from learning activities in clinical therapeutics, nursing theory, and the sciences.

The theoretical concepts that are integrated throughout the curriculum will provide direction to the teaching/learning process. Concepts are introduced from the simple to complex. These include life sciences, nursing skills, nursing process, and professional development.

The life sciences provide knowledge and understanding of the human body. The structure and functions of the various organs and the interrelationships to meet the needs of the whole are explored.

Nursing skills, under the fundamentals of nursing, incorporate cognitive, psychomotor, and effective competences needed to implement the nursing process in the delivery of nursing care. The nursing process courses focus on specific systems and management to meet the needs of patients with common disorders and integrating basic needs of individual patient populations across the life span. In the clinical setting, the knowledge and skills learned will be applied via the nursing process beginning with meeting a patient’s basic need for specific diseases/disorders and patient population, and building to meet more complex needs of patients with multiple problems.

Professional development promotes behaviors that foster trust and respect, provides for effective interpersonal relationships, and portrays confidence and competence in nursing skills. These behaviors are an integral part of learning in the classroom, laboratory, and clinical settings.