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University of Wyoming

Mission and Philosophy
 

Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing
Mission Statement
 

The Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing
will promote excellence in professional nursing
for diverse populations, with an emphasis in
rural health, through education, scholarship, outreach, and service. (8/29/02)


The Philosophy of the Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing
 

    The mission of the university is to provide teaching, scholarship, and outreach programs.1 Graduate programs will be recognized for excellence in a discipline and will contribute to the state’s and nation’s cultural, scientific, social and economic needs.2 The State of Wyoming is culturally, occupationally, and geographically rural in nature with a low population density and great expanses between communities. The nature of the state poses special problems for the delivery of health care and mandates preparation of professional nurses to meet the identified needs of the state as well as those of society by providing programs for professional nursing at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Because this is the only University in the State, the faculty believe it is important to make these educational programs accessible to students through outreach.

     The faculty believe that the clients of the professional nurse are individuals, families, groups, or communities. Clients are diverse open systems composed of physiological, psychological, spiritual, developmental, and sociocultural dimensions and are in continual interaction with the environment. The faculty view environment as dynamic, diverse, and includes all the conditions and influences that affect or surround clients throughout the life span.

     The human health experience is the dynamic interaction between the client and the environment. Health is an outcome at a particular point in time during this interaction.  Because clients are unique, the human health experience must be individually interpreted and evaluated according to situations and conditions that are affecting them. The clients have the right to self-determination throughout this experience.

     Nursing is the diagnosis and treatment of responses to the human health experience. The nursing process is systematic and is implemented through a collaborative nurse-client relationship involving interpersonal communication and shared responsibility. The process is characterized by mutual respect and values individual differences.

     The practice of nursing includes promotion/protection of health, acute care and rehabilitation. The faculty believe that professional nurses function in the roles of carer/helper, counselor, and advocate; consumer of research; and leader within their scope of practice. The professional nurse demonstrates caring/helping and counseling through assistive, supportive, and facilitative actions that are responsive to the needs of others.  As an advocate, the nurse acts on behalf of clients and protects their rights. Research links the science and practice of nursing. The role of consumer of research is demonstrated by participating in, valuing, and using research findings to improve practice and to modify care based on a changing and expanding body of knowledge. Leadership is demonstrated through shared, planned change, delivering high quality care, evaluation care outcomes, and improving care through designing, managing, and coordinating care using delegation, supervision, and evaluation of personnel. Leaders manage information within interdisciplinary health care teams and participate in political and regulatory processes to shape the health care delivery system.

     University students are individuals who come with learning preferences, different experiences, varied goals, and therefore, have unique learning needs. The primary faculty responsibility is to empower students to become self-directed learners. Active learning is a teaching/learning partnership. The faculty recognize that learning is a lifelong process and that undergraduate education is the beginning of the progression from novice to expert nurse. The baccalaureate program prepares the student to enter professional nursing practice as a beginning provider of nursing care in a variety of settings, cultivates a commitment to professional development, and provides the foundation for graduate study.

     In accord with the Graduate School of the University, the faculty believe that graduate education endeavors to:

  • Prepare scholars with current knowledge and skills together with independence and creativity.

  • Prepare professionals for leadership in their respective fields.

  • Encourage diversity in our mission by involving all persons from Wyoming, the nation and internationally in these advanced educational opportunities.2

     The faculty believe that there are geographic, occupational and cultural differences between urban and rural clients and that these differences include variations in health illness and appropriate nursing care. The graduate program is designed to address the health and nursing care needs of rural clients. It is expected that nurses who graduate from this program will have advanced knowledge and practice in the specialized area of rural health nursing. They should be able to adapt existing research findings as well as participate in direct knowledge development. Through the use of leadership skills, the advanced practice nurse will apply research and new knowledge to the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative nursing care and/or nursing education.

     Graduate nursing students should investigate the usefulness of a variety of theories and operationalize them in practice. Faculty believe students should be encouraged to be critical, inquiring and independent in seeking their own direction in the acquisition of new knowledge.  The role of the faculty then is to assist the students in the development of a consistent and coherent program of study to facilitate their learning, and to serve as a resource by modeling scholarship and excellence in nursing. The graduate program is designed to prepare students as rural health nursing specialists with preparation for advance practice roles and at the same time to pursue further graduate study.

(1)  General Bulletin, 2002-03, University of Wyoming, p.6.

(2)  General Bulletin, 2002-03, University of Wyoming, p.6.

Revised and Approved 10/11/2002

Page Updated 6/22/2005; last reviewed 12/22/2006