Augustana College Department of Nursing
Mission of the Department of Nursing
Philosophy
Guiding Values

MISSION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF NURSING:
The mission of the professional nursing program is to prepare students to apply knowledge and Christian values in the understanding and fostering of health, wholeness and human potential in a changing world.

The curriculum is grounded in nursing science as well as the biological and social sciences and the humanities. The guiding values of the program are congruent with the mission of Augustana: teaching/learning from a liberal arts perspective, living in community, cultivating excellence, developing servant leadership and living faith in vocation. Graduates are prepared to address complex issues in health through experiences that facilitate both their personal and professional growth.

PHILOSOPHY:
The purpose of Augustana College is to provide a Christian liberal arts education for women and men. Within this framework, the nursing curriculum serves to integrate liberal arts with preparation for professional nursing, to provide a sense of community, and to serve the region and the larger society. Within this structure, the Department of Nursing philosophy, program purposes and outcomes have been developed.

The faculty are committed to a liberal arts education, which promotes both personal and professional growth. The focus of the nursing curriculum is upon lived experiences of health in a continuously changing world. The nursing curriculum is grounded in nursing science as well as the biological and social sciences and the humanities.

The faculty views nursing as an art and science. They embrace the breadth and depth of the historical and theoretical perspectives in nursing*, as they actively participate in ongoing scholarly dialogue. Within this context, the following philosophy as been developed to reflect the diversity they bring to nursing education at Augustana College.

Persons are viewed as unique beings, with freedom to choose within situations. Health is the way one lives his or her life, reflecting values in the search for meaning and manifesting pattern of the whole. Quality of life is the meaning one gives lived experiences.

The human community and universe are interconnected. Past, present and future are integral, as we live in relationship with persons and all that surrounds us. Nursing is being, knowing, and acting with compassion and caring in evolving relationships. Nursing fosters the health, wholeness and human potential of persons, families, groups and communities. Living the art and science of nursing involves presence and honoring the perspective of another.

Teaching-learning is a mutual process, requiring intentionality and shared responsibility, fostering a spirit of inquiry. The search for truth requires living in ambiguity, as values and beliefs are challenged and scholarly endeavors explored.

GUIDING VALUES:
Teaching/learning from a liberal arts perspective includes:
* being aware of one's own ethical beliefs
* hearing the voice of others through relationship and presence
* embracing change/living with ambiguity
* applying a broad foundation of knowledge and skills from the arts and sciences

Living in community embraces:
* respecting human diversity and unqiueness
* responding to health issues
* collaborating with others
* living in relationship
* valuing human freedom
* hearing the voices of community
* caring for creation

Cultivating excellence encompasses:
* nuturing potential
* challenging the intellect
* fostering creativity
* committing to continued personal and professional growth

Developing servant leadership entails:
* caring in the human health experience
* addressing the health concerns of persons and society
* practicing integrity
* committing to social justice
* advocating for health policies and structures that are responsive to societal needs

Living faith in vocation involves:
* relating Christian faith to service
* searching for meaning
* responding with compassion to the human condition
* creating sacred space

NOTE: The Augustana College Nursing Program is informed by the following nurse theorists: Leininger, Nightingale, Peplau, Rogers, Newman, Parse, Watson.