Mission and Philosophy

A Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree is a four-year course of study and provides a broad background of liberal arts, sciences, and general education as a minimum foundation for professional nursing. A graduate is prepared as a generalist nurse and is qualified to take the licensure examination to become a registered nurse. Minot State University’s nursing program provides experiences in meeting human needs holistically along the health-illness continuum.

Mission Statement
The Minot State University Department of Nursing, as an integral part of the parent institution, is dedicated to excellence in nursing education, scholarship, and community engagement. The mission of the Department of Nursing is to educate individuals for professional roles in nursing and for graduate education through rigorous academic experiences, active learning environments, commitment to public service, and contributions to a vibrant campus life.

Department of Nursing Philosophy and Theoretical Constructs
The philosophy of the Department of Nursing faculty is anchored in the major constructs of the meta-paradigm of nursing. Those constructs are identified as person, environment, health, and nursing.

The Nursing Department faculty recognizes people are unique, complex, and evolving. Persons interact with a changing environment to maintain life and achieve purposes as individuals and members of a society. The person within the context of nursing is identified as a client. A client may be further defined as an individual, family, a group, and/or community. People are dynamic, complex, adaptive, and self determined in achieving a meaningful existence.

The environment is dynamic, complex, and multidimensional. The environment is further defined as the context, surroundings, settings, foci, or backgrounds within which individuals interact. Persons have a reciprocal relationship with ever changing internal and external environments. These environment systems interact in the ecological, socio-cultural, political, economic, spiritual, ethical, and legal realms.

Health is defined as a condition of the life cycle that is dynamic, adaptive, responsive to both internal and external stimuli, and influenced by the behaviors of the person. Health refers to the person’s state of well-being at the time nursing occurs. Health is personal and can range from high-level wellness to terminal illness.

Nursing is the application of scientific knowledge enhanced by artful practice in a socially responsible manner. Nurses provide compassionate, sensitive, evidence-based client centered and population focused quality nursing care and provides leadership as members of interprofessional teams to promote health, prevent disease and injury, and restore and maintain client integrity throughout the life span.

Nursing education is viewed as a process designed to facilitate learning for achievement of expected learning outcomes and prepare for nursing generalist practice. Students and faculty are active and responsible participants in learning. Nursing education at the baccalaureate level integrates content from the arts and humanities and social and physical sciences and incorporates the three domains of learning: Cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. The key curricular components emphasized within the curriculum are derived from the Department of Nursing’s mission and philosophy and include professionalism, research for evidence based practice, holistic health, and globalization.

Professionalism
Professionalism in nursing includes adherence to professional nursing practice and performance standards. Professional nursing practice provides client and family centered quality care through interprofessional and client collaboration using best practices following the principles of altruism, autonomy, human dignity, and integrity. The professional nurse possesses leadership and management skills, using clinical judgment when delegating and supervising members of the health care team. Professional nurses practice autonomously and collaboratively within the legal/ethical scope of practice of the licensing organization. As leaders and members of the multi disciplinary health care team, nurses think critically, communicate effectively, work to create a safe, caring environment for care delivery, utilize information and patient care technology, and promote quality improvement and safety within an ever-changing and complex healthcare system. In providing services to society, nursing practice is based on knowledge from the discipline of nursing which requires ethical determinations, lifelong learning, accountability for one's self and nursing practice, professional engagement, and the creative use of therapeutic nursing interventions.

Research for Evidence-based Practice

Research is a systematic inquiry that uses various approaches to answer questions and solve problems. Nursing research is a process that allows nurses to ask questions to gain knowledge for improving client outcomes. Evidence-based nursing encompasses the judicious use of theory and research driven knowledge in the clinical decision making process to provide best practices for the client and family.  Evidence-based practice includes integrating reliable and best available evidence obtained from research combined with clinical expertise and client values.  Nurses are accountable for the evaluation of client outcomes and identifying concerns in practice to provide quality care. Nurses collaborate with the health care team and incorporate technology in pursuit of the most current evidence for improvement of client outcomes.

Holistic Health
Nursing supports a holistic view of diverse persons and requires its practitioners to achieve a substantial knowledge base in the sciences, arts, and humanities. The caring, competent nurse uses self and presence, recognizing the importance of human dignity, spirituality, diversity, community, and social justice in the promotion of health through the life span. Communication of information is critical in educating people toward health and healing.

Globalization
The baccalaureate nurse is prepared to practice professional nursing in a global society, with an awareness of diversity and varied cultures. As members of a global community of nurses, the faculty is dedicated to support the education and professional development of nurses working to improve the health of the world’s people. With a commitment to social justice, the Department of Nursing prepares nurses to address issues of equity, fairness, and diversity.

Theoretical Constructs
The Department of Nursing’s theoretical beliefs are eclectic in nature with key concepts drawn from the works of Florence Nightingale, Madeleine Leininger, and M. Jean Watson. Major theoretical constructs are as follows: Nightingale’s (1969) emphasis on environment to optimize health; Leininger’s (1978) advocating for cultural care; and Watson’s (1979) premise that caring is the soul of nursing. Faculty embraces these theoretical beliefs as vital to nursing and baccalaureate education. [references]