George Fox University | Academics | Departments | Nursing | Mission & Philosophy

Mission Statement

In keeping with the Mission Statement of the University, the Department of Nursing's mission is to incorporate the "meaning of Jesus Christ" throughout a curriculum that educates students to care for individuals and groups experiencing actual and potential threats to health. Nursing faculty are committed to teaching, service, practice, and research which are core to providing quality nursing education for beginning professional practitioners. To accomplish this mission, the faculty adheres to the belief that a religious and liberal arts education provides a foundation for service; for the arts; for the humanities; and for the science of nursing.

The goals of the department of nursing are to develop competent professional nurses who will attempt to be imitators of God; serve as leaders in providing holistic health care to a global community; foster an attitude of life long learning; and to prepare individuals for graduate education.

Philosophy

The Department of Nursing faculty subscribe to an accepted philosophy about God and truth, human beings, nursing, undergraduate nursing education, and Faith and Caring. Faculty strives to be leaders in their roles as educators, health professionals, consumers and advocates for consumers of health care.

This is an educational program that is based on principles of Christianity and strives to instill knowledge that God is all wise; He is the source of all truth; and one's acceptance of this belief will enable one to reflect the example of Christ in all relationships.

Humans are dynamic, holistic, and multidimensional- mind, body and spirit. Created in the image of God, humans have intrinsic worth and needs which are uniquely experienced and expressed within the totality of their environment. The manner in which needs are met are influenced by transpersonal relationships between the individual, their family, local community, and global community. These relationships transpire through the life cycle of each individual. Humans have the right and the responsibility for their health and welfare. Moreover, they have the right to access basic services for health promotion, disease prevention, and treatment of acute or chronic illness. To this end, the faculty recognizes their social and professional responsibility to sanction access for equitable health care through educational, leadership, political, and public service activities.

Education is a community responsibility shared by faculty, students, and consumers of health care. Learning is a life-long, collaborative process where faculty are responsible for creating environments that are conducive to learning and students are responsible for identifying environments that will best facilitate their learning. Faculty members are committed to creativity in the learning process and continuous quality improvement in curriculum and program development. Faculty facilitates the educative process, promotes an environment for effective application of knowledge integration, stimulate critical thinking, and professionalism.

Professional nursing is educative, facilitative, and carative, it is grounded in sound scientific and humanistic knowledge formed from diverse fields of study. Understanding that the nature of professional nursing is collaborative; nurses employ therapeutic communications techniques to assist with health promotion and wellness in a variety of ways and settings. Professional nurses use knowledge acquired from theories, research and practice related to diversity, ethics, political-legal, health promotion, communication, caring, values, information technology, critical thinking, leadership and global health to plan and deliver holistic care in collaboration with other health care providers.

Faith and caring are integral aspects of each persons being as they seek a sense of wellbeing. Faith is foundational to each person's belief system about their well-being; while caring, the core of nursing practice, is a deeply human activity which involves the cultural, spiritual, and ethical aspects of all humans in a caring relationship- health care consumer and health care provider. Utilization of nursing knowledge is the major focus in the undergraduate curriculum in the development of beginning level practitioners. Acknowledging the role of spirituality in maintaining and sustaining one's health and with an understanding that caring is demonstrated through compassion for the whole person; this Christ centered baccalaureate nursing program prepares graduates to meet the present and emergent community health concerns at local and global levels.