The faculty of Mountainside Hospital School of Nursing believes that each person is a unique biopsychosocial, spiritual, and cultural being having innate dignity and worth. Each individual exists within a society. Society is characterized by values, diverse traditions, mores, ethical and religious beliefs that influence the person’s priorities and lifestyle. As a social being, each person has inherent rights, obligations and responsibilities; among these rights is health care. The socio-cultural economic context of a democratic society offers a multitude of challenges. Included in these challenges is the responsibility to actively participate in health care decisions and to choose those behaviors that promote growth and wellness.
Nursing is a humanistic profession based on knowledge evolving from the biological, behavioral, and social sciences. Nursing is committed to health promotion, restoration, rehabilitation and the care and comfort of the dying. Through the nursing process, individuals, families and communities are assisted in achieving their optimal level of wellness. Nursing is concerned with the whole person and strives to meet the needs of individuals of all ages, developmental and socio-cultural economic levels in a variety of settings. The profession of nursing promotes client advocacy through communication, education, and collaboration among the nurse, client, and members of the multi-disciplinary health team.
Learning is a continuous interactive process that results in the acquisition of desired behavioral changes. Nursing education integrates concepts from liberal arts and sciences. This provides a basis for the correlation of nursing theory with professional practice and is the foundation for higher education. The faculty fosters a learning environment by providing a variety of educational and multi-cultural experiences. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Basic Human Needs provides the framework for integrating the concepts of growth and development, wellness/illness, teaching/learning, community and ethical/legal issues. The faculty promotes personal and professional growth by recognizing and accepting individual differences, life experiences and previous learning. The learner becomes increasingly independent in the acquisition of knowledge, critical thinking skills and in the development of professional judgment and behavior. The student is responsible to be self directed and accountable for life long professional growth.
The diploma school graduate is prepared as a beginning practitioner to assume roles and responsibilities in a variety of health care settings. The faculty believes that this graduate is prepared to participate as a responsible professional in an ever changing and complex society.