NURSING
Department Profile
Mission Statement
The mission of the Dordt College Nursing Department is to provide serviceable insight to appropriately talented persons in order to prepare them for Christ-centered nursing. This distinctively Christian nursing attends to the suffering of humanity, provides compassionate caring, and works toward the restoration of the integral wholeness established by our Creator within every human being.
Learning Objectives
The four curricular coordinates as developed within Dordt College’s Educational Framework (religious orientation, creational structure, creational development, and contemporary response) provide a basis from which the overall goals of the nursing program are hinged together.
- Religious Orientation
- Christian Worldview: Articulate a reformational, Christian perspective of nursing.
- Other Worldviews: Evaluate dominant non-Christian or conflicting worldviews regarding the nature and profession of nursing.
- Creational Structure
- Theoretical Frameworks within Nursing Science: Apply prominent theoretical frameworks used to explain and guide professional nursing practice and research.
- Preparation for Professional Nursing Practice: Incorporate knowledge-based competencies and critical thinking with the sciences and humanities to provide and evaluate holistic nursing practice.
- Caring in Professional Nursing Practice: Integrate reformational Christian perspective within the various roles of the professional nurse and the various health care systems in a complex global society.
- Creational Development
- Historical Development of Nursing
- Demonstrate an understanding of the historical roots of nursing and familiarity with the influence of key historical figures.
- Convey an understanding of the history and current management of health and disease within legal and ethical frameworks and various health care systems.
- Philosophical Perspectives of Nursing: In understanding the historical context of a Christian philosophical perspective of nursing, evaluate emerging nursing philosophies.
- Contemporary Response
- Leadership and Professional Development in Nursing
- Assume an active role in practice development and leadership activities consistent with Christian professional nursing.
- Display a commitment to personal and professional development through lifelong learning with a Reformed Christian worldview.
- Effective Communication: Demonstrate effective avenues of communication with colleagues, individuals, families, and communities in the promotion of optimal health across the life span.
- Health Care Technologies: Use various technological methods in the acquisition of information and management of care as a professional nurse on the health care team.
- Appreciation of Human Diversity and Individual Needs: Display an appreciation of human diversity and world cultures while developing competency in caring for the contemporary needs of individuals, families, and communities.
Program Strengths
- Faculty members provide diverse skills and insights, including advanced practice experience.
- Our program’s Clinical Coordinator ensures quality clinical experiences for our students and clinical sites.
- Our nursing education building (renovated summer 2009) gives faculty and students ample opportunities to interact together in the gathering room, skills lab, study lounge and conference room.
- Our BSN students are eagerly sought by employers and area healthcare organizations because of their exceptional licensing preparation and their Christian professionalism
