BURNETT INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY       Anne Moise School of Nursing

PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING SCHOOL

The University seeks to provide an appropriate academic, cultural, and social environment for the student. In accordance with the mission of the University, the School of Nursing serves a diverse constituency linked through an environment supported by traditional and emerging technologies. Global access to University resources facilitates educational mobility for students who may be geographically bound. The School’s faculty serves the students, the community, and the University through teaching, public service, scholarship, research, and other creative activities.

             The School of Nursing faculty believes that humanity consists of unique holistic beings with intrinsic worth and dignity that have the right to self-determination, well-being, and equity. As part of various groups, individuals interact according to individualistic and group needs in the community. These interacting individuals and groups, with their cultural meanings and values, create the society within the larger environment.

              The faculty believes that the environment, an aggregate of all internal and external dimensions, not only influences individuals and groups, but is also influenced by them. The environment provides the context for the development of individuals, the identification of health needs, and the evolution of nursing. Through ongoing, interactive processes, the environment and nursing influence each other. The nursing profession, therefore, serves the health needs and interests of society.

               The faculty believes that health, a dynamic state, is the observable manifestation of individual and group adaptive responses to the environment. Health is the focus of the discipline of nursing. Since the state of health is culturally defined, health seeking behaviors reflect cultural perceptions and values. Although individuals have the right to make decisions about their health, their ability to make informed decisions is influenced by knowledge, perceptions, and values.

                As an art and a science, nursing practice utilizes cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills in meeting the health needs of individuals and groups. Nursing practice applies nursing theory as well as knowledge from other sciences and the humanities.

                Nursing practice is the application of therapeutic nursing interventions in a caring environment to assist individuals and groups to achieve their optimal state of health.  These interventions are based on assessment, diagnosis, and evaluation of human responses to internal and external environmental dimensions that affect actual or potential health states.  The elements used in nursing practice within a multidisciplinary health care system are critical thinking, communication, collaboration, cultural and ethical competence, and research.

                Nursing practice includes the right and responsibility to establish and maintain legal and ethical standards for professional excellence. Nursing practice utilizes lifelong learning and application of research.

               The faculty believes that education, a process which is shared by the teacher and the learner, is the exploration, utilization, and generation of knowledge through a spirit of inquiry and self-motivation. The learner and the teacher share the right and responsibility to achieve educational goals through participation in the educative process. An organized setting with planned learning activities provides opportunities to achieve these educational goals. The approach to teaching and learning varies with individual needs, abilities, and experiences. Faculty and students are responsible for creating, promoting, and maintaining standards of academic and professional excellence through individual, lifelong learning.  

The faculty believes that nursing education is the means by which students are prepared for competent nursing practice at multiple levels. These levels of nursing practice are facilitated though various educational opportunities that are best provided in a collegiate setting.