Department of Nursing Mission and Philosophy

Department of Nursing Mission

The Department of Nursing, in accordance with the mission statement of Immaculata University, strives to develop “a truly educated person who is value oriented and committed to truth, justice, service, and peace.” The Department of Nursing of Immaculata University seeks to stimulate the expansion of personal and professional consciousness from a holistic perspective within a Christ centered academic environment.

The RN to BSN program is designed to facilitate the educational mobility of graduates of associate degree and diploma programs of nursing. Building on the liberal arts and sciences, the program promotes the growth of knowledge, professional skill, and intellectual inquiry. The program prepares the students for graduate study and to meet the challenges of a dynamic health care system for a global community.

The MSN program builds on baccalaureate nursing education and prepares nurses for the roles of advanced practice, of educator and of manager/leader and for doctoral study. In a framework of the liberal arts it strives to provide opportunities to integrate knowledge through logical and critical thought, independent study, aesthetic and cultural awareness, and practical experience. The MSN program fosters students in the process of scientific inquiry and the development of research to expand nursing knowledge. The students are challenged to develop as leaders and innovators who impact the nursing profession and the global health care system.

Department of Nursing Philosophy

The nursing faculty believes that education is an intellectual journey that involves critical thinking, intellectual inquiry, problem solving and application to professional practice. In accordance with the beliefs stated in the university’s goals, the nursing faculty believes that "the highest service a university can render its students is to prepare them for life." The faculty believes that an RN-BSN program should build on the strengths of diploma and associate degree nursing programs and on the knowledge, experience, and skills students bring with them and that a masters in nursing program should build on the BSN education.

As a Catholic liberal arts university, Immaculata is an ideal setting in which to educate professionals for a changing society. The preparation of students for service within a Christ centered academic community is an institutional commitment. The faculty values the individual uniqueness of each student and strives to create an atmosphere that promotes the development of the whole person with consideration for the physical, intellectual, social, moral, aesthetic and spiritual nature of humans.

The faculty believes that nursing is an art and a science that incorporates the physical, psychological, and social sciences and the humanities into its practice. As an art, nursing is the use of self in assisting persons to promote, restore, and maintain health, and to die in comfort and with dignity. Nursing necessitates the development of a sense of equity, justice, freedom, dignity, group membership, community and the encompassing environment. The faculty believes that the discipline of nursing has a scientific basis derived from research. Critical thinking is viewed as the basis of all nursing inquiry and therapeutic nursing actions. Nursing is also acknowledged as a legally sanctioned practice defined in the Pennsylvania Nurse Practice Act as the, "diagnosis and treatment of human responses to actual or potential health problems, through such services as case finding, health teaching, health counseling, and provision of care supportive or restorative of life and well being..." (Professional Nursing Law, 1987).

Health is wholeness derived from the harmonious internal interaction of the body, mind, and spirit and the harmonious balance between person and environment. It is an individually perceived and dynamic state.

The faculty embraces a holistic Christian, worldview that views all humans as composed of mind, body, spirit and believes these components are intertwined and inseparable. The faculty also believes that humans are cultural beings who are unique and who have worth and dignity, and who interact continually in a changing environment The environment comprises internal and external systems of which the person is an integral part. The internal systems are the somatic, psychic, spiritual, and cultural nexi which form the individual personhood. External systems are comprised of the social, physical, political and cultural milieus in which the person moves, has being, and through which humanity is expressed. It is believed that person and environment are inseparable. The faculty believes this perspective is essential for understanding the human condition.