Nursing

Overview
This program provides the education necessary for becoming a registered professional nurse. It prepares the student to take the NCLEX examination (state board licensure test) for RN.

Philosophy
The goal of the Bachelor of Science degree in nursing program is to provide opportunities for qualified students to acquire the knowledge necessary to provide nursing care, which promotes adaptation of the person, family, and community. This knowledge is acquired within a liberal arts experience, which emphasizes honesty, integrity, civility, and a strong sense of personal responsibility. Professional preparation as a nurse includes promotion of lifelong learning, social responsibility, and service.

The faculty believes persons are unique, holistic, and developing beings with the process and capacity for thinking, feeling, reflecting and choosing. Persons respond to and act upon the constantly changing environment, which is everything that is within and around them. To adapt to this changing environment, people use coping processes, which are both innate and learned. Adaptation occurs as adaptive responses promote integrity and wholeness.

Health is a state and a process of being and becoming an integrated and whole person. Health is a continuum ranging from peak wellness to death. The adaptation level is that point where the person is able to respond positively. A whole person is one with the highest possible fulfillment of human potential.

Nursing assists persons, families, and communities to examine life and environmental patterns, attach personal meaning to these patterns and choose adaptation. Nursing acts to enhance interaction with the environment by promoting meaningful life experiences, growth, and adaptation. The profession of nursing is an integrated part of a system for health care delivery and shares responsibility for working collaboratively with other health care practitioners.

Nursing education is a process, which enables the learner to synthesize a body of knowledge obtained through courses in nursing, liberal arts, humanities, and the sciences. Because nursing is dynamic, the education is foundational for professional growth through nursing research and continuing education.

The faculty believe that the learner is best able to reach individual potential in an environment that is nurturing and promotes inquiry, dialogue, curiosity, creativity, the ethical ideal, and assertiveness. The learner brings an attitude of commitment and motivation for achievement. The role of the learner is to share in the responsibility of the teaching-learning process.

The teacher interacts with students as persons of worth, dignity, intelligence, and high scholarly standards. The teacher's role is to provide the climate, structure, and dialogue that promote discovery of patterns and paradigms for practice. The teacher raises questions that require reading, observation, analysis, and reflection upon patient care. The teacher nurtures the learner, is available for dialogue, and promotes the use of research and critical thinking in the delivery of nursing care.
 
What skills and abilities do I need to excel in this degree?
The successful RN student needs a solid grounding in the biological sciences. The willingness and ability to develop and participate in therapeutic relationships is fostered. The student moves from acquiring the knowledge base needed to applying that knowledge to design and implement appropriate nursing care and interventions for the specific client.
What skills can I expect to develop through this degree?
The student can expect to develop the basic clinical and communication skills needed to practice nursing. Additionally, each student will become proficient in applying basic biological science, health, and pathophysiologic knowledge to specific client situations and needs.
What I will learn
Bachelor of Science in Nursing graduates will demonstrate professional nursing leadership with technical proficiency in the care of clients, families, and communities and in the management of physical, fiscal, and human resources. Graduates will apply critical thinking and problem-solving to provide nursing care that promotes holism and adaptation by discovering research questions, critically analyzing research, and applying research to practice. Graduates will practice the principles of communication, client education, and client advocacy. Graduates will commit to individual and professional growth as lifelong learners through continuing education, reading refereed professional journals, and participating in shaping the health-care delivery system. Graduates will provide, delegate, and/or supervise nursing care based on current knowledge, theory, and research to promote holism and adaptation as evidenced by the ability to assess and diagnose the health status of diverse individuals, families, and communities and by the ability to plan, implement, and evaluate the care for diverse individuals, families, and communities. Graduates will evaluate career choices within the nursing profession based on emerging skills and personal strengths and abilities. Graduates will display professional behavior based on standards of practice and professional codes of ethics. Graduates will demonstrate collaboration with other health-care providers to promote the full human potential.
What opportunities are there for internships or other hands-on learning experiences?
Each student will participate in clinical courses each semester of the junior and senior year. The final semester of the senior year includes a clinical practicum that consists of 225 hours the student spends in the partnership practice of nursing with a clinical preceptor in a health care facility.
What are some possible entry-level careers with a degree in this field?
The student graduating from this program will be eligible to take the NCLEX examination. This program prepares the new nurse to practice in acute health care delivery at the entry level.
What are some CMU graduates with this degree doing?
Graduates of CMU nursing are actively involved in Acute care nursing, Intensive care nursing, Home and Public health nursing, Psychiatric nursing, Labor and Delivery/Maternal-Child health nursing, graduate school, administrative positions, and nursing education.
Other items to note
This program strives to prepare students to achieve a 100% pass rate per class for the NCLEX. We have a record of 100% job placement for students who have successfully passed the NCLEX and desire to work.

Nursing Scholarship.US
AfterCollege/AACN Nursing Scholarship
After College - Job Resource Center
After College - Alumni Directory

 

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