Nursing Philosophy

The philosophy, curriculum, and objectives of the program are designed to develop the intellectual, social, and cultural potential of each student in accordance with Moorpark College’s stated beliefs and purposes.  The purpose of the program is to provide a learning environment so students are able to complete the critical competencies of safety/technical skills, critical thinking/clinical reasoning, communication skills, responsibility/accountability, and organization/prioritization skills that are essential to the function of registered nurses in the direct care of patients.
 

Nursing Practice

Nursing:

  1. Is a scientific, community-based dynamic profession which is an integral part of health care services values caring, integrity, ethical practice, diversity, education, service and quality

  2. Gives assistance to the individual unable to meet self-care requirements to maintain, attain and/or regain health or a peaceful death

  3. Goals are: to empower individuals toward self-care and to increase the health, healing and well-being of individuals, families and communities

  4. Utilizes the nursing process for knowledgeable decision making and judgment based on critical thinking, clinical competence, collaboration and accountability

  5. Provides relationship-centered care characterized by caring and inclusive communications.

  6. Roles are: provider of care, manager of care and contributor to the nursing profession

The Individual is:

  1. A bio-psycho-socio-cultural-spiritual being with dignity, unconditional worth and rational powers

  2. Viewed within the context of their environment

Health is:

  1. A changing state on the wellness-illness continuum

  2. The structural and functional soundness and wholeness of the individual

  3. Determined by the individual’s values, beliefs and ability to meet self care requisites or health deviations

Caring for Self and Others is:

  1. A basic way of being which is central to nursing

  2. Enhanced through self-awareness and personal empowerment

  3. A major theme in becoming a knowledgeable, compassionate individual able to respond to human needs

  4. Learned by experiencing caring practices between: students and teachers, students and students, nurses and patients and health care team members

Nursing Process is:

A five step systematic method for giving patient-centered care; involving assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing and evaluating

  1. Assessment/nursing diagnosis; identification of patient’s universal and development self-care demands and health deviations

  2. Establishment of patient outcomes to prevent illness, meet the patient’s self care demand, restore health, move the patient toward independent self-care or adaptation to self-care interruptions/decline, and transfer responsibility to family or significant others within the community setting

  3. Identification and implementation or nursing measures: preventive (educative/supportive) or restorative (wholly/partially compensatory) and evaluation of outcome

Nursing Education
 

Learning:

  1. Is a continuous, lifelong, growth process

  2. Occurs in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains

  3. Proceeds from the simple to the complex and from parts to whole, in which repetition and reinforcement are important aspects

  4. Transfer from theory to practice is accomplished through: exercises that promote critical thinking, independent learning, clinical simulation, clinical experience and nursing care plan development

Students:

  1. Have diverse learning styles and times, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, objectives and support systems

  2. With the assistance of the faculty, assume the responsibility to fulfill the learning objectives utilizing resources and evaluating self realistically

Faculty:

  1. Assume responsibility for individualizing approaches to the teaching/learning process by providing measurable learning objectives and a variety of learning experiences

  2. Facilitate problem-solving, critical thinking and caring practices

  3. Guide and maintain expertise in nursing practice

  4. Promote faculty to faculty and faculty to student relationships that are egalitarian and characterized by cooperation and community building

Associate Degree Nursing Graduate
 

The Associate Degree Nursing Graduate: is prepared as a beginning level professional nurse able to provide safe, direct, relationship centered patient care, across the life span to a diverse population in a multitude of practice settings.
 

Program Threads:
 

            The following concepts are integrated throughout the curriculum:

            1.  Caring

            2.  Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning

            3.  Nutrition

            4.  Patient Advocacy

            5.  Pharmacology

            6.  Legal/Ethical Considerations

            7.  Bio-psycho-socio-cultural-spiritual Patient Needs throughout the Life Cycle

            8.  Evidence-based Practice

            9.  Community-based Practice

Dorothea Orem’s self-care concept of nursing is consistent with the faculty’s beliefs and serves as the unifying framework.  Theoretical guidelines for student progression and evaluation are modeled after Benner’s concepts of novice practitioner to expert.  Faculty reason that the nursing student cannot progress to the “expert” practitioner level during their nursing curriculum; therefore, expectations for student progression within the program are to become a proficient practitioner.
 

Dorothea Orem’s Theory of Self Care

  • Theory of Self-Care

  • Theory of Self-Care Deficit

  • Theory of Nursing System (wholly compensatory, partially compensatory, supportive-educative)