The faculty members of the Department of Nursing Education 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. The Department of Nursing Education at San Antonio College provides both basic nursing education and continuing education. Basic education prepares graduates for entry into practice as registered nurses. Continuing education includes formal courses that enhance nurses' health related knowledge and skills after graduation. To ensure that the nursing program is dynamic and responsive to the health care needs of the community, faculty members seek involvement of consumer, business, industry, and professional groups in planning and revising the curriculum. Faculty strive for program excellence through continuing assessment of the program and utilization of assessment findings for improvement.

Faculty recognize that students enter the nursing program with a variety of educational and life experiences and from diverse cultural backgrounds. The goal of the nursing program is to help students assimilate the knowledge, judgment, skill, and values of the professional nurse. In accordance with the Mission of San Antonio College, faculty are committed to excellence in helping students reach their full potential by developing academic and nursing competencies, critical thinking skills, communication proficiency, and professional and civic responsibility. The faculty members of the Department of Nursing Education believe that learning and teaching are interactive, and faculty encourage students to assume active roles in the learning process.

Beliefs about nursing and the clients who are the recipients of nursing care influence nursing education. These beliefs provide a framework for the content that is taught in the nursing program and the focus for nursing action. Specifically, the faculty of the Department of Nursing Education holds the following beliefs about client and health and the associate degree nurse:

Guided by a multidisciplinary body of knowledge, nursing is characterized by a commitment to the value of caring. Nurses operate holistically from a scientific base and utilize the nursing process for integrating concepts and implementing therapeutic nursing interventions. Nurses incorporate a variety of therapeutic modalities to promote the optimal functioning and adaptation of individuals seeking health care services.

The faculty of the Department of Nursing Education believes that clients possess unique biological, intellectual, spiritual, psychological, and sociocultural dimensions. Clients are shaped in diverse ways within their physical and social environments as they concurrently act on and change those environments. Clients are members of families, other small groups and communities that share belief systems, provide mutually reinforcing support networks, and define expectations for health and illness behavior. Ideally, individuals interact with their environments in integrated, adaptive ways that foster optimal expressions of health and well-being throughout the lifespan. Clients seek health care for health promotion, during times that they experience acute disruptions or permanent alterations in their lives. Clients have a right to knowledge about heath care standards and issues in support of their taking an active role in personal, family, and community health care decision-making.

Grounded in a multidisciplinary body of scientific knowledge, professional nursing is committed to providing the highest quality of health care for clients in diverse and challenging health care settings. Nurses conceptualize client needs holistically and use nursing process and critical thinking to structure and evaluate care for individuals and families. Ideally, all nursing care is therapeutic, ranging from simple to complex actions that integrate cognitive and psychomotor skills, communication principles, a capacity for caring, and with careful regard for ethical and legal standards. Nursing care is directed toward specific ends, including the prevention of heath care problems, carrying out treatment regimes to assist clients recover from or manage illnesses with minimum residual effect, or to facilitate rehabilitative efforts.

According to the Differentiated Entry Level Competencies of Graduates of Texas Nursing Programs (BNE, 2002), "the primary role of the entry level graduate of an associate degree program is to provide direct nursing care to or coordinate care for a limited number of clients in various health care settings. Such clients may have predictable or unpredictable health care needs and are identified as individuals and members of families." The associate degree nurse functions in three roles: provider of care, coordinator of care, and member of a profession. Within the role as provider of care, the associate degree nurse develops and implements individualized plans of care for clients from diverse and multicultural populations. The associate degree nurse coordinates client care with other nurses and members of the interdisciplinary health care team through the use of effective communication skills. As a member of a profession, the associate degree nurse assumes accountability and responsibility for the quality of care provided to clients.

Approved FA 3/07

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