Standards of Practice

Purpose

The program is designed to meet the individual or diverse needs of men and women from a broad range of ages and backgrounds. The primary focus throughout the program is to promote caring attitudes and behaviors in the professional nurse. The curriculum is designed to provide a liberal and professional educational foundation essential for competent practice with ethical judgment, creative and critical thinking; for understanding a multicultural society within the context of individual needs and his/her environment; for utilizing nursing theory and research; for promoting personal and professional growth and for enhancing motivation for continuing education.

The graduate will be prepared at the baccalaureate level in nursing to function as a generalist who is able to utilize the nursing process in caring for a diverse, multicultural society in a variety of healthcare settings. The major roles the graduate will be prepared to assume are direct provider, planner/coordinator, manager, and contributor to the nursing profession and health care team.  The baccalaureate program is designed to prepare the graduate for professional nursing practice within the legal framework of the Illinois Nurse Practice Act.

Philosophy

The faculty of Lakeview College of Nursing is committed to the following beliefs concerning individuals, environment, health, nursing, nursing education, and caring. Individuals have adaptive capabilities by which they attempt to manipulate the physical, biological, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual resources of their internal and external environment to promote well being. As open systems, individuals adapt and evolve in mutual interaction with other systems. Individuals relate within the context of self, family, group, community, and society. They are endowed with unique qualities and have a basic need for respect and recognition of personal worth. Individuals have the right to participate in decisions affecting their own wellness.

The Environment is composed of internal and external dimensions. The individual's unique perceptions and response to this phenomenon distinguishes individuals from one another. Individuals interact with their environment in a dynamic process which requires adaptation. Interactions include regulating, promoting, modifying, maintaining, and monitoring the relationships between the individual and the environment.

Health is defined as a perceived state of well-being influenced by developmental an personal experience. The quality of health is contingent upon the individual's ability to adapt to or change the internal or external environment. Well-being involves coping in ways which promote optimal growth and functioning. The individual can overcome, accept and adapt, or succumb to illness. When an individual requires assistance to support, restore, or enhance personal capabilities for living or meeting life crises, there is a legitimate need for nursing intervention.

Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations (ANA, 2003). 

Nursing is concerned with human experience, behavior, feelings, and the influence of social forces resulting from interaction with the internal and external environment. Nursing’s scope of practice encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. Nursing includes the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people. Advocacy, promotion of a safe environment, research, participation in shaping health policy and in patient and health systems management, and education are also key nursing roles. The scope of practice is not limited to specific tasks, functions or responsibilities but includes direct care giving and evaluation of its impact, advocating for patients and for health, supervising and delegating to others, leading, managing, teaching, undertaking research and developing health policy for health care systems. (International Council of Nursing http://www.icn.ch/abouticn.htm)

As a discipline and a profession, nursing has a unique body of knowledge and provides a vital service for individuals and their environment. Nursing is accountable for nursing practice based on a Code of Ethics, Standard of Practice, and evidence based research. The professional nurse provides healthcare based on the problem-solving methodology of the nursing process; assumes an active role for the improvement of healthcare; and facilitate individuals, families, groups, and communities to mee their healthcare needs throughout the lifespan. Nursing activities are relational and contextual and may be structured or unstructured. These activities require clinical judgment skills; diagnostic and monitoring skills; and helping, coaching, teaching, counseling, and communication skills; and, understanding of cultural diversity. Nursing is concerned with coordinating family, group, community, and professional resources to augment healthcare of the individual (AACN, 1986).

Liberal education is essential for the professional nurse to live a fulfilling life, act in public interest locally and globally, and contribute to the nursing profession throughout his or her career (AACN, 1986). Faculty respect and model the knowledge of a liberal education in classroom and clinical settings. The faculty believes in an atmosphere where self awareness, critical thinking, creativity, and leadership are paramount. Each student has the opportunity to develop a professional identity and commitment to continued personal and professional growth.

Baccalaureate nursing education has its roots in the humanities and sciences as well as in nursing knowledge; combined these serve as the basis for nursing practice. References to nursing theories and models enhance understanding of the phenomena of nursing, its nature and scope. Education is viewed as a lifelong experience and is the result of teaching and learning processes that occur in formal and informal settings. Career mobility maximizes the individual student's potential for personal and professional growth and is facilitated through an educational process that reflects flexible programming for traditional and nontraditional students. The teaching and learning processes involve both the teacher and learner in a collaborative effort to identify learning needs and resources.The teacher facilitates the student's search for knowledge by creating an atmosphere, which fosters critical thinking, self-awareness, creativity and leadership. The student shares an equal responsibility for his or her personal and professional growth by jointly planning goals, objectives, and evaluating outcomes. The quest for knowledge is the hallmark of the nursing profession through a commitment to research and continuing education.

Caring is the essence, the central unifying focus, that characterizes nursing. In caring the nurse demonstrates a commitment to the welfare of self, individuals, families, groups and communities in relationship with a diverse multicultural population. Caring is viewed as attitudes, behaviors and values that take on a spiritual dimension. Caring behaviors are symbolic and have different meanings within and between different cultures.