To provide compassionate, quality healthcare services to those in need, including the poor and dying, for the purpose of alleviating human suffering and bringing people to wholeness in the midst of pain and loss.
Bon Secours Memorial School of Nursing teaches the profession as both an art and a science.
The philosophy of the faculty of the Bon Secours Memorial School of Nursing is based on our beliefs about the nature of an individual, the environment, health, nursing, the community, nursing education, learning, the School, faculty, students, and our community responsibility.
We believe that individuals are unique, complex beings with physical, emotional, cognitive, sociocultural, and spiritual dimensions. Dignity and worth are inherent within individuals. Individuals strive to meet human needs and have the right to be treated with care and respect.
Health is a dynamic state of optimal physical, emotional, cognitive, sociocultural, developmental and spiritual well-being of an individual, group or community. Health is conceptualized on a continuum from wellness to illness, with wellness being a self-perceived integrated process toward fulfillment of one’s potential. We believe that health requires ensuring that the basic right of all individuals, especially the poor and the dying, to have equitable access to the health care system.
We believe that nursing is both an art and a science, with a focus that is spiritual, holistic, caring, inquiring, and unifying. Nursing applies critical thinking to a body of knowledge through the nursing process in the holistic support of health for consumer and the community reaching beyond the walls of tradition to improve our community.
We define community as a group of individuals who share a commonality within the environment. Community is multicultural and diverse. The community provides opportunities for individual and family growth, livelihood, socialization, education, safety, security, and spiritual fulfillment.
Nursing education is a progressive program, which prepares caring, reflective practitioners who can function in a variety of settings within the community. We believe that nursing education is a process whereby knowledge, competencies, and attitudes needed for professional nursing practice are coached and empowered (Billings & Halstead, 2005). A facilitative relationship exists between students and faculty, which results in the development of professional ideals and clinical proficiency.
Learning is a continuous, life-long process that is enhanced when the learner is an active participant. We believe that optimal learning occurs through discovery.
School is comprised of a climate and culture of freedom to inquire, paired with facilities and resources for learning.
Faculty enhance the personal and professional development of students by acting as facilitators and role models. We believe that faculty respect students’ individual learning needs, model the value of caring, and validate students as individuals with intelligence, worth, and dignity.
Students are responsible for their learning and are self-directed and goal-oriented. We believe that students are able to self-evaluate and act on that evaluation.
Our community responsibility encompasses the Bon Secours mission of “good help to those in need,” which requires our involvement as change agents. We believe that our community responsibility is demonstrated in mission outreach activities, which foster faculty and student growth in the values of integrity, justice, stewardship, innovation, respect, quality, and compassion.
Reference:
Billings, D., Halstead, J. (2005). Teaching and nursing: A guide for faculty, (2nd ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier, Inc. May 31, 2006