Peggy L. Wolfe, Dean

Welcome

On behalf of the College of Nursing, I want to welcome you to our website. This website offers valuable information regarding each of the three nursing degree programs (Associate, Baccalaureate, and Master’s) offered by the College of Nursing. In addition, current non-credit workshops offered by the Continuing Education Program for practicing nurses are also featured.

There has never been a more exciting time to consider nursing as a career. In fact, we believe nursing is a career for the mind, the heart, and a lifetime! Graduates from the College of Nursing are practicing in positions as diverse as advanced practice nursing (clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners), community and public health nursing, faculty in colleges/schools of nursing, nursing administrators, occupational health nursing, travel nursing and many others.

We are committed to student success and work closely with each student to ensure a positive experience with the College of Nursing. Contact names with telephone numbers and email addresses can be found for each of the programs. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us and we will be glad to answer your questions.

Best regards,
Dr. Peggy L. Wolfe, Dean

Statement of Philosophy

The Faculty Believe:

Person
The person can exist as a unique individual, family, group, or community possessing dignity, worth, and the right to self-determination. Persons have biological, psychological, sociocultural and spiritual dimensions. As open systems, persons are in constant interaction with a changing environment that influences health.

Environment
The environment is the sum total of all internal and external factors in dynamic interaction with person, health and nursing.

Health
Health is a relative state of physical, mental and social functioning. Health reflects the degree to which persons maximize their potential for well being.

Nursing
Nursing is both an art and a science. Nursing is the interaction between the person, environment, and the nurse for the purpose of facilitating need fulfillment across the life span. The nurse uses communication, therapeutic nursing intervention, and critical thinking to promote, maintain, restore health or to provide palliative care. Nurses function independently and interdependently in a variety of roles. The profession of nursing is characterized by accountability and self-regulation based on the American Nurses Association Standards of Clinical Nursing Practice and the state nurse practice act. Nursing is committed to community education, community service, and the improvement of the health care delivery system.

Nursing Education
Nursing education is built upon a foundation of liberal arts and sciences. Different levels of nursing education imply education increases in complexity to correspond with the role of each graduate.

Associate Degree
Associate degree education prepares the graduate to function as a beginning practitioner providing direct care to persons as individuals and members of a family in a structured health care setting.

Baccalaureate Degree
Baccalaureate nursing education prepares the graduate for entry into professional practice as a generalist who cares for persons as individuals and members of a family system, as groups, and as communities in both structured and unstructured health care settings.

Masters Degree
Masters nursing education prepares a specialist practitioner who cares for persons as individuals, as family systems, as groups, and as communities in structured or unstructured settings.

The complexity of decision-making and accountability increases in proportion to the complexity of the client, the health care setting and the preparation of the practitioner.