Goals
- Graduates will have the skills, knowledge and ability to perform at the novice level.
- Graduates will pass the NCLEX as first time test takers.
Mission
The mission of the Swain Department of Nursing is to educate and develop our students to become principled leaders in the health care environment and profession of nursing by incorporating the core values of The Citadel of honor, duty, and respect into their learning experience. The curriculum is focused on holistic and person-centered care across the lifespan and within various healthcare environments. The Citadel nurse understands the impact of the social determinants of health and integrates this knowledge to meet the unique care needs of the communities they serve.
The application of clinical judgment enables the student to apply abstract concepts to concrete situations using methodological skills and current evidence. The Citadel nurse understands and applied evidence-based practice in accordance with accepted standards of professional practice. He/she provides safe and quality care as a contributing member of the interprofessional team.
The art of nursing is expressed through a curriculum focused on caring and healing in an individual and family-centered approach. The Citadel nurse acknowledges the mind-spirit-body triad and works to promote healthy lifestyles and wellness. The Citadel nurse has a moral contract with the community to improve health through the application of The Citadel and The American Nurses Association Codes of Ethics.
The science of nursing instills critical and creative thinking that allows the student to apply abstract concepts to concrete situations using methodological skills and current evidence. The Citadel nurse uses academic knowledge and applies it to the care of others in a disciplined approach through accepted standards of professional practice. H/she provides safe and quality care as a contributing member of the interprofessional team by managing knowledge and information that meets the unique needs of his/her patients and their families.
Vision
To educate nurses who are prepared to be leaders in the healthcare environment.
Core Values
- Honor: The commitment to honor is a life-long obligation to moral and ethical behavior. Citadel nurses uphold the long standing tradition of being recognized as the most trusted profession through advocacy for individuals and families as well as the health of communities.
- Duty: Duty is a call to serve others before self. Citadel nurses will recognize the responsibility of being a leader within the interprofessional healthcare team and promoting holistic health, healing and caring practices to individuals, families and communities.
- Respect: Respect means to treat other people with dignity and worth. Citadel nurses will provide quality and safe care to all people without regard to rank, position, age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, or physical attributes. Citadel nurses will assume a leadership role in promoting a positive image of the profession.
Program Learning Outcomes
The purpose of The Citadel nursing program is to prepare nurses at the baccalaureate level to assume leadership roles within the healthcare team, providing for quality and safe practice in a complex health care environment. Specifically, students will:
- Apply the principles of a liberal education to the practice of nursing by incorporating scientific evidence and using creative and critical thinking skills for the safe and effective of care of individuals, families, and communities.
- Demonstrate intercultural knowledge and competence of individual and family centered care in the practice of nursing by understanding the importance of eliciting individual values, preferences and needs as part of the overall assessment process and creating a plan of care that addresses the unique needs of the individual.
- Use inquiry and analysis to provide a complete biopsychosocial assessment of individuals and facilitates their care through a complex health system.
- Communicates effectively verbally and in writing with individuals, families and other members of the healthcare team to promote safe care and a safe work environment.
- Understand and apply intercultural knowledge and competence in health promotion and disease prevention to individuals, families, communities and the global world throughout the health continuum.
- Use interprofessional communication and collaboration to improve patient health outcomes.
- Understand the role of the professional nurse relative to health finance and regulatory policies. Uses quantitative literacy to measure the impact on health outcomes.
- Use ethical reasoning and action in understanding the professional values of human dignity, integrity, social justice, altruism and autonomy within legal and ethical boundaries in order to maximize patient safety and optimize quality care.
Conceptual Framework
Citadel nurses follow Swanson’s Theory of Caring. Caring is a central nursing phenomenon but not necessarily unique to nursing practice. Swanson defines caring as a nurturing way of relating to a valued other toward whom one feels a personal sense of commitment and responsibility. There are five caring processes within the Theory:
- Knowing: striving to understand an event as it has meaning in the life of the other; avoiding assumptions; centering on the one cared for; assessing thoroughly; seeking cues; engaging the self.
- Being With: being emotionally present to the other; being there; conveying ability; sharing feelings; not burdening.
- Doing For: doing for the other as he or she would do for self if it were possible; comforting; anticipating; performing skillfully; protecting; preserving dignity.
- Enabling: facilitate the others passage through life transitions and unfamiliar events; informing/explaining; supporting/allowing; focusing; generating alternatives; validating/giving feedback.
- Maintaining Belief: Sustaining faith in the other’s capacity to get through an event or transition and face a future with meaning; believing in/holding in esteem; maintaining a hope-filled attitude; offering realistic optimism; going the distance.
The curriculum follows guidelines developed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing in The Essentials for Baccalaureate Nursing Education (2008 version with the 2018 amendments) and incorporates competencies from the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses.