Nursing Program Philosophy
The Nursing Faculty of Macomb Community College believe that nursing education must be dynamic and responsive in preparing students for the current and future nursing needs of people in a changing health care delivery system. To ensure that the nursing program is dynamic and responsive to the health care needs of the community, faculty members incorporate feedback from community and student groups in planning and revising the curriculum.
Faculty recognize that students enter the nursing program from a diverse background, with a variety of educational and life experiences. Learning is a teacher/student partnership in which the teacher’s responsibility is to structure and facilitate optimal conditions for learning through clearly defined educational objectives. The student brings to this partnership the willingness to learn and assumes accountability for his or her educational outcomes. We believe the Macomb Community College Associate Degree Program prepares students to be clinically competent in a variety of settings.
Beliefs about nursing and the patients who are the recipients of nursing care influence nursing education. Specifically, the Nursing Faculty holds the following beliefs about health, patients and nursing.
- Health is a dynamic process, which occurs on a continuum from optimal wellness to death. Health encompasses an individual’s physical, psychosocial and spiritual well-being.
- Nursing a profession guided by science, theory, evidence based practice, a code of ethics, and the art of caring to treat human responses to health and illness. It requires a commitment to professional values and lifelong learning.
- All people have a right to maintain their beliefs, values and cultural differences and exercise primary responsibility for their own health care decisions.
- It is essential for nurses to use scientific evidence to engage in critical thinking and decision making.
- Nurses are patient advocates. Nursing care is enacted through relationships and interpersonal communication in a way that is congruent with the culture, values and lifestyles of individuals from diverse populations.
- The nurse collaborates with the patient, the family, and members of the healthcare team to provide quality health care.
- Safety is paramount. Nurses must consistently use safe practices and quality improvement to avoid causing unnecessary harm to patients.
- In response to our rapidly expanding knowledge base, nurses must be adept at using written, mathematical, technological and interdisciplinary resources.
Approved December 2008