Mission Statement
The mission of the Department of Nursing at Coe College is to prepare graduates to practice professional nursing. Professional practice emphasizes primary prevention to promote the health and wellness of the whole individual, group, and community within their environment. When there are actual alterations or risks to one's wellness potential, this practice will encompass secondary and tertiary preventative strategies. In addition, realizing the growing diversity of the population, the nursing graduate is also prepared to sensitively care for clients of all ages and genders who come from diverse cultural, racial, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and lifestyle choices.
To accomplish the mission of the Nursing Department, the faculty believe that students need an education that is an integration of the liberal arts, natural and social sciences, and professional courses. The liberal arts and science courses assist students in developing essential values and attitudes, which are needed for being productive members of society. These characteristics as well as professional competencies are necessary for students and graduates to function appropriately in the various roles encompassed in the practice of professional nursing.
The essential qualities that our graduates are expected to attain include critical thinking, communication (verbal, nonverbal and written), assessment, and technical skills. However other qualities are emphasized including information management, leadership, environmental sensitivity, ethical awareness, and motivation for continued lifelong learning. A liberal arts college is an ideal setting in which to obtain these skills that become a foundation for development of professional competencies.
Professional competencies that our graduates are expected to develop include conceptual competence in the domain of nursing, application of theoretical knowledge through the nursing process, and ethical competence as it relates to the practice of nursing through the assimilation of professional values (caring, altruism, autonomy, human dignity, integrity, and social justice).Caring, specifically, is the essence of nursing and most central to the practice of professional nursing.Professional competencies also include scholarly capacity to improve cost effective and quality nursing care through the utilization of research, collaborative skills as designers, managers, and coordinators of holistic care, and technical ability to perform appropriate psychomotor skills as providers of care.
The professional competencies embody the Essential of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice, the American Nurses Association Scope and Standards of Practice, and the PEW Health Commission Competencies. The nursing faculty believe these professional competencies can best be obtained through the development and implementation of a nursing course of study that is organized within a conceptual framework that focuses on four major components: nursing, health, and human/ environment interaction patterns.
