Bachelor of Science in Nursing / Curriculum Overview

Purposes of the BSN Program
The purposes of the baccalaureate nursing program are derived from the mission and the philosophy of the SON. The program is based on the faculty's belief that those awarded the BSN degree are professional nurses prepared to function in a variety of roles and in diverse health care settings. In addition, the program is designed to provide a foundation for graduate education in nursing. Thus, the purposes of the baccalaureate program are to prepare qualified men and women to:

• function as professional nurse generalists.
• function as accountable citizens.
• work collaboratively with community agencies in providing services to clients to promote, maintain, and restore health, rehabilitate, or face death with dignity.
• function as discriminating research consumers.
• participate in health care delivery, research, education, and leadership, and consultation services in the local, regional, and international community.
• recognize and respond to the need for continuing professional development.

Objectives of the BSN Program
The BSN program’s purposes are achieved through program objectives. The objectives of the BSN program are to prepare the graduate to:

• Synthesize scientific knowledge from nursing and related disciplines in the provision of care to clients within the health-illness continuum throughout the life span.
• Analyze research findings from nursing and from other disciplines to improve or change nursing practice.
• Analyze nursing theories and concepts from other disciplines as a base for nursing practice.
• Pro-act to legal, social, political, and economic forces and ethical considerations which impact on the role of the professional nurse and on clients.
• Collaborate with members of the health care team in the delivery of individualized, economic and ethical health care services with accountability and responsibility for own practice.
• Utilize creative leadership to promote quality health care in a rapidly changing multicultural, multiethnic, global environment.
• Practice critical thinking as a lifelong process through independent pursuit of personal and professional growth.
• Demonstrate clinical competencies in culturally diverse populations in a variety of clinical settings.

BSN Curriculum Framework
The organizing framework for the BSN curriculum is derived from the philosophy, purposes, and objectives of the program.  The BSN Organizing Curriculum Framework depicts schematic relationships among organizing processes, levels, and threads.  The pervasive organizing processes of the undergraduate curriculum framework are Nursing Process, Adaptation, Health Promotion, Maintenance, Restoration, Rehabilitation, and/or Facing Death with Dignity.  These processes are integrated and continuous throughout the four levels of the BSN curriculum.  The vertical organizing threads that are articulated in logical progression from simple to complex provide the depth and breadth of the curriculum.  These organizing threads are Client Systems, Stressors, Research, and Nursing Roles.

Client Systems
As stated in the SON philosophy, nursing is a professional humanistic service that assists client systems.  The client system may be individuals, families, or communities.  Humans, as individuals, are open systems who interact, interrelate, and are interdependent with the environment.  The environment is composed of the internal and external systems.  The internal environment consists of physiological, psychosocial, developmental, cultural and spiritual dimensions.  The external environment consists of groups of humans united by common familial, geographic, socioeconomic, political, spiritual and cultural characteristics.

In Level I of the curriculum the student is introduced to the individual human as a client system.  In Level II, the student is provided with increased knowledge and complexity related to the adult as a client system.  In Level III the student is introduced to the childbearing and childrearing families consisting of groups of individuals as a client system.  In Level IV the student synthesizes antecedent knowledge and skills in the care of individuals (with a focus on the elderly client), families and communities as client systems.

Stressors
As stated in the SON philosophy, adaptation is a response to stressors, which impact humans' physiological, psychosocial, developmental, cultural, and spiritual dimensions.  Professional nurses assist client systems in adaptation to potential and actual environmental stressors.  Emphasis in Level I of the curriculum is placed upon physiological and psychosocial

stressors, which impact the basic needs of the individual as client, together with nursing approaches to assist in adaptation.  In Level II the student is provided knowledge of increased complexity in and nursing approaches to physiological, psychosocial, developmental, cultural, and spiritual stressors, which impact the adult as client.  Level III emphasizes the physiological, psychosocial, developmental, cultural, and spiritual stressors for the childbearing and childrearing family as client, together with nursing approaches to assist in adaptation.  Level IV provides opportunities for the student to integrate nursing approaches to physiological, psychosocial, developmental, cultural, and spiritual stressors impacting individuals (with a focus on the elderly), families and communities.

Research
As stated in the SON philosophy, research is an integral component of professional nursing practice.  Research guides the professional nurse in the provision of holistic care through the nursing process.  In Level I of the curriculum the student is made aware of the research process through discussion of findings and evidence-based practice applicable to the physiological and psychosocial dimensions of the individual as client.  The student learns to analyze current research findings for individuals as client.  Levels II and III emphasize the application of research findings in the interactions between nursing and the adult and family as clients.  In Level IV students use awareness, application, and analysis in the synthesis of research findings in their interactions with individuals (with a focus on the elderly), families and communities as client.

Nursing Roles
As stated in the SON philosophy, the nursing process is translated into action through the overlapping roles inherent in nurse-client system interactions.  These nursing roles are direct care provider, teacher-learner, collaborator, client advocate, change agent, leader, and research consumer.

In Level I of the curriculum the student is introduced to all the roles with emphasis on the roles of direct care provider, collaborator, teacher-learner, and research consumer.  As direct care providers, professional nurses apply their cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills to enact the nursing process and, thereby, assist client systems in attaining optimal well-being.  As collaborators, professional nurses communicate and cooperate with other members of the health care team in implementing the plan of care.  The teacher-learner role is dynamic and ongoing in professional nursing.  In the role of teacher, professional nurses adapt instructional philosophies and methodologies appropriate to client systems' learning styles to promote optimal well-being.  As learner, the professional nurse is a lifelong learner, continuing to expand his/her knowledge base and contribution to nursing practice. As research consumers, professional nurse generalists are expected to identify problems, analyze studies and apply evidence-based findings to improve clinical practice in collaboration with other health care providers. 

In Levels II and III the roles of change agent, client advocate, and leader are emphasized.  Students are provided knowledge on how professional nurses integrate these roles with those roles previously learned.  As change agents, professional nurses function as collaborators with client systems and other health care providers to effect planned alterations toward optimal well-being.  These alterations are also designed to improve health care at the local, state, national, and international levels.  As client advocates, professional nurses mobilize external environmental resources that may be supportive of client systems rights.  As leaders, professional nurses utilize cognitive, psychomotor, and affective skills and values in influencing others in the attainment of individual or group goals. 

In Level IV the student integrates all nursing roles inherent in nurse-client interactions to provide a holistic approach to client care.