Saint Peter's College (Department of Nursing)

Nursing, a scientific discipline, requires creativity in its execution. The art of nursing lies in the application of concepts and principles of nursing theory to the design of individualized care using the nursing process. The essence of nursing is to provide evidence-based care to our clients in the performance of those activities that contribute to health promotion, resolution of illness, or end-of-life. This is congruent with Nursing’s Social Policy Statement that “nursing is the diagnosis and treatment of human responses to actual or potential health problems” (American Nurses Association, 2004, p. 10.)

The faculty believes that a person is an integrated being with intrinsic dignity and worth. While possessing common needs, a person is characterized by uniqueness and self-determination. As an open system, an individual is in constant interaction with the environment.

The goal of nursing is to use a humanistic approach to implement therapeutic interventions to assist the individual, family, aggregate, and community in attaining maximum potential for health. Health is viewed as a continuum and is seen as a right of all people, with individual choice as prerequisite. Such choices are determined by pluralistic factors within the internal and external environments. Pluralism encompasses gender and the ethnic, religious, racial, or cultural groups coexisting in society and philosophically reflects the belief that many views of reality are needed to account for all the phenomena of life. In order to meet the needs of a pluralistic society, the professional nurse is committed to standards of the profession and practices autonomously in a variety of settings.

Through its mission, Saint Peter’s College, a Jesuit Catholic, coeducational, liberal arts college in an urban setting, seeks to develop a whole person in preparation for a lifetime of learning, leadership, and service in a diverse and global society. Committed to academic excellence and individual attention, the College provides education, informed by values, primarily in degree-granting programs in the arts, sciences, and business, to resident and commuting students from a variety of backgrounds (Academic Handbook, 2002). The Nursing faculty concurs with this mission.

Education is an ongoing process promoting the development of the total person in intellectual, physical, emotional, social and spiritual aspects. The outcome of value-oriented education is an individual secure in his/her own identity with mature values and a strong sense of responsibility. Such a person will possess precision of though, clarity of oral and written expression and appreciation of learning for its own sake.

The faculty believes that the core of learning is change. A change in perception, thinking, feeling, and action is demonstrated through behavior. The teacher is seen as a facilitator who assists learners in the process of discovery. Learners are self-directed adults who integrate experience in a highly individualized fashion. Learning provides the teacher and the learner with the opportunity to test ideas, analyze mistakes, take risks and to foster creativity. The learning process promotes the development of personal reflection, intellectual inquiry, and sound judgment.

Education for nursing must be value-focused, providing guidance for future practice, yet reality-based to prepare practitioners for the current health care system. Nursing education equips the student with cognitive, affective, and psychomotor competencies integral to professional nursing practice. This practice is characterized by accountability, problem solving skills, critical thinking, the ability to synthesize and apply concepts, and to integrate appropriate technology. To be responsive to societal changes, the curricula encourage risk taking and commitment to change. Processes of inquiry enable students to seek options for changes in nursing practice and delivery of health care. The curricula must be flexible to meet individual student needs and facilitate program articulation.

Essential to nursing education at Saint Peter’s College is the provision of a professional collegial milieu for Registered Nurses. In such an environment, the faculty will foster student growth and a commitment to lifelong learning. This is particularly important for the adult learner where acknowledgment of established values, beliefs, and opinions as well as validation of both the life and professional experience each individual brings is perquisite to change. Through the teaching-learning process, faculty and students share commitment, enthusiasm and heightened awareness for significant professional enhancement. This fosters collegial relationships among students and faculty to promote independence and heightened self-esteem. The faculty believes that mentoring supports the nursing profession. Mentoring is viewed as useful and powerful in understanding and advancing nursing practice. It provides access to informal and formal networks of communication, and offers professional growth and stimulation to both the mentor and mentee.

Faculty believes that the BSN is entry into professional nursing practice. The baccalaureate degree prepares a professional nurse in the generalist role. In concurrence with The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice document, faculty believes that nursing practice is built on nursing knowledge, theory, and research. In addition, nursing practice derives knowledge from a wide range of other fields and disciplines. The adaptation and application of this knowledge is appropriate to professional practice (AACN, 1998).

Graduate education builds on the knowledge and skills acquired at the baccalaureate level and prepares one for nursing practice in a specialty and for advanced practice nursing. The Master of Science in Nursing Program at Saint Peter’s College affords students the opportunity to broaden their theoretical foundation of nursing and to acquire the depth and breadth of advanced knowledge for expert practice in nursing case management, for the role of nurse administrator and for advanced practice nursing in the primary care of adults as an adult nurse practitioner.

Faculty believe that in light of changes in the health care industry and with the ever evolving managed care environment, masters level professional nurses must be prepared to fill the leadership requirements for roles in case management, advanced practice and administration.

Nursing case management can be defined as a dynamic and systematic collaborative approach to providing and coordinating health care services to a defined population. It is a participative process to identify and facilitate options and services for meeting individual health needs, while decreasing fragmentation and duplication of care and enhancing quality, cost effective clinical outcomes. The framework for nursing case management includes five components: assessment, planning, implementation, evaluating and interaction (ANA, 1996, p.2).

Masters prepared nurse case managers are equipped to utilize a variety of case management models across providers and the health care continuum. Nursing case management is fundamentally a process that changes the structure and process of care. It is important that masters prepared nurse case managers utilize a broad systems approach and take a leadership position in defining the linkages among structure, process and outcomes of care that are unique and specific to nursing case management. Furthermore, such nurses are educated to assume leadership roles in creating health services and systems that are high quality, humanistic, accessible and cost effective.

Faculty contend that nurse administrators function as organizers of the care delivery process. Masters prepared nurse administrators assume positions of leadership and management in variety of health care settings and function as members of interdisciplinary middle and upper level management teams with broad-based responsibilities. These masters prepared nurses plan, direct, design and evaluate both systems and delivery of health care.

Master’s prepared adult nurse practitioners acquire specialized skills and knowledge in assessment, diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic health problems and in the human response to actual or potential health problems. A nurse practitioner can be defined as, a skilled health care provider who utilizes critical judgment in the performance of comprehensive health assessments, differential diagnosis and the prescribing of pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments in the direct management of acute and chronic illness and disease (ANA, 1999, pg. 4).

As providers of primary health care, graduate prepared nurse practitioners utilize the nursing process to incorporate a pluralistic, holistic and humanistic perspective into the implementation of therapeutic nursing interventions for adult clients. Such nurses promote health seeking behaviors, identify risks and collaborate with other health team professionals for the comprehensive management of client care. Clinical decision making using critical thinking and diagnostic reasoning is integral to advanced practice.

Master’s prepared adult nurse practitioners are educated as advanced practice nurses who integrate theory, research, management, leadership, consultation and education into their clinical roles. These nurses are educated to assume leadership roles in the delivery of primary health services that are high quality, accessible and cost effective.

Consistent with NONPF curriculum domains for nurse practitioners, and the core curriculum recommended for all masters degree students in The Essentials of Masters Education for Advanced Practice Nursing, faculty believe that the curriculum must include research, policy, organization and finance of health care, ethics, professional role development, theoretical foundations of nursing practice, human diversity and social issues (AACN, 1996). Knowledge related to advanced health assessment, physiological and pathological mechanisms of disease, pharmacologic principles/pharmacotherapeutics and clinical specialty content are integral for master’s prepared nurse practitioners to deliver quality, holistic, accessible care to clients. Furthermore, emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, case management models and processes, health care economics, management of client services and leadership and management skills are essential for masters prepared nurse case managers and administrators to provide and direct quality, cost effective care to diverse populations.

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Department of Nursing Nursing School Location

Department of Nursing Courses

HEALTH ASSESSMENT ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN
Major focus is on a holistic approach to health appraisal of the individual client across the life span. The nursing process, with an emphasis on assessment and planning is analyzed and applied in dealing with individuals in the college laboratory. Concepts related to health promotion, risk, identification and client education are stressed.

CARE OF FAMILIES AND AGGREGATES
Major focus is on primary and tertiary prevention within a social systems framework. Creative application of nursing process to families and groups utilizing family systems theory and group dynamics.

COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING
Community health nursing emphasizes community as client. The nursing process is applied in dealing with groups, aggregates and community. Nursing care of individuals in community settings is also examined.

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN NURSING
The major focus is on leadership and change in nursing practice within the health care delivery system, utilizing the nursing process as a framework. Clinical practice includes a change project proposal in a selected clinical agency.

NURSING SEMINAR
The course is designed to examine the evolution of professional nursing through a synthesis of the social, cultural, philosophical, historical and theoretical influences. The development of a professional identity is facilitated by encouraging students to derive meaning from the core values central to the nature of nursing.

PATHOPHYSIOLOGY
This course uses as systems approach to examine the human response patterns to health and illness. Physiological processes and pathological changes are explored in depth.

COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY IN NURSING PRACTICE
Critical analysis of the impact and use of computer technology in patient care, nursing practice, research, education and management. Emphasis on the utilization of technology for nursing scholarship.

CONTEMPORARY TRENDS AND ISSUES IN NURSING
Current status of professional nursing. Political, economic and social trends affecting nursing and the health care system are analyzed. Issues in professional practice and education are explored.

INTRODUCTION TO NURSING RESEARCH
The understanding of the research process and the critique of research studies is emphasized. The relevance of nursing research findings for the provision of patient care is discussed. Students will develop a researchable problem through an interactive process with faculty and peers.

NURSING ELECTIVES

NURSE/CLIENT EDUCATOR
A multifaceted approach to client/peer education. Emphasis on teaching/learning concepts. The role of education as a strategy in health promotion.

CASE MANAGEMENT IN NURSING
Preparation for the managed health care environment. Nursing roles, financial considerations, utilization review, and continuous quality improvement as aspects of the longitudinal approach to service.

WOMEN'S HEALTH ISSUES
Exploration of health issues affecting women from historical, political and pluralistic perspectives. The students' role as health care advocate is stressed.

ALTERNATIVE HEALING METHODS
A study of alternative healing techniques, practices and beliefs utilized in different cultures throughout history: emphasis on the sociopolitical importance of the healer and the status of folk medicine in contemporary high tech societies.

CULTURE AND NURSING CARE
A study of similarities and differences in various cultural groups using a transcultural framework to analyze and develop a nursing perspective about individuals and families of varying cultural backgrounds.

LOVE, DEATH AND HEALING: LITERATURE OF HUMAN COPING
A pluralistic approach to the examination of the themes of death, disintegration and the human spirit in literature.

STRESS MANAGEMENT IN NURSING
An investigation, through a holistic-wellness model, of stress and its effects on behavior. Various intervention processes to prevent, control, and resolve professional and personal stress will be analyzed.

SPECIAL PROJECTS IN NURSING
Students have the opportunity to investigate a topic of their choice and develop a project of interest.

INTRODUCTION TO HOLISTIC NURSING
An introduction into the history and philosophy of holistic nursing. This course is designed to assist students to synthesize nursing knowledge and adapt it to a humanistic, caring, therapeutic, healing practice.

Other nursing schools in Jersey City

New Jersey City University (Nursing Department) The department supports the University's urban mission and the mission of access and excellence. With over 1000 graduates since its inception in ... Address: 2039 Kennedy Boulevard, Professional Studies Building, Suite P-449

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