Our Mission

As an integral component of Ottawa University, the nursing program embraces the University’s mission of providing the highest quality liberal arts and professional education in a caring, Christ-centered community of grace which integrates faith, learning and life. The program and faculty are committed to improving health care by preparing professional nurses to become future leaders in serving individuals, families, groups, and communities in diverse population settings.

 

Program Goals

The program's goals are committed to the following:

• Providing quality nursing education by remaining on the forefront of current trends in nursing standards and practices to meet the health care needs of individuals, families, groups, and communities.
• Cultivating a compassionate educational environment based on Christ-centered values that encourage a commitment to lifelong learning and professional nursing development for both students and faculty.
• Engaging in collaborations with community health care facilities to discover learning opportunities for students that will empower them to be innovators and leaders in nursing.
• Preparing students to be culturally and professionally competent nurses in a variety of diverse health care and community settings.
• Positively meeting the needs of students as well as faculty, customers, groups, and communities in which we partnership and serve.

Learning Outcomes

The graduate of the BSN program will be able to:

 
 
Specialized Knowledge:

• Define the essential components of today’s professional baccalaureate nurse and compare and contrast to historical perspectives.
• Build upon their knowledge of the nursing process to ensure safe and timely outcomes for individuals, families, and communities across the lifespan.

 
Integrative Knowledge:

• Integrate knowledge from the liberal arts and sciences with the knowledge of nursing theories as a foundation for nursing practice.

• Synthesize information obtained from the natural and behavioral sciences in refining both their understanding of and assessment techniques in the patient’s presentation and response to normal and abnormal pathophysiological processes across the life span.
• Develop collaborative relationships and effective communication skills with other members of the healthcare team to optimize patient care outcomes.

 
Intellectual Skills:

• Utilize information management and health care technology to support the delivery of safe patient care in a variety of health care settings.
• Demonstrate critical thinking skills by evaluating evidence based research and disseminating the appropriate findings into best practice decisions.
• Adopt current health promotion principles and effective teaching strategies to improve delivery of care.

 
Applied Learning:

• Utilize the foundational knowledge from their pre-licensure education and nursing background and the understanding of the ethical and legal standards of practice to expand their role as a professional nurse.
• Through selected practice experience projects, apply the principles of nursing leadership, quality improvement, and patient safety measures in providing culturally competent care for individuals, families, and communities in diverse population groups.

Civic Learning:

• Develop and articulate a statement of values or code of ethics that reflects one’s respect for different ideas, peoples and cultures, and an understanding of the responsible uses of technology.
• Identify how health care policy, finance, and regulatory issues influence health care systems and practice decision-making.

 
Personal Learning:

• Embrace a personal commitment to lifelong learning by remaining up-to-date with current literature and trends in the profession of nursing, and attending or pursuing continuing educational opportunities to further their professional development.