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School of Nursing Curriculum Framework and Guiding Document

Belief Statements

The curriculum is organized to facilitate student learning. The beginning courses provide a foundation for the nursing major. Course content and learning experiences progress from the individual to the family and community, from simple to complex, from faculty-facilitated to student-directed learning, and from theory to application. Teaching and learning are highly interactive and multidimensional processes. Our faculty design and facilitate experiences to guide students to integrate theoretical concepts into practice, foster a spirit of inquiry, and expand critical and reflective thinking in nursing. This design enables students to acquire attitudes, cognition, and the essential skills needed to develop the knowledge and behaviors that comprise the professional nursing role.

The curriculum framework provides direction for the selection and organization of learning experiences to achieve program outcomes and competencies. The curriculum is centered on the philosophy that guides the curriculum design by ensuring that the common threads necessary for nursing practice are addressed and developed progressively across the course of study.

The five integral threads interwoven across the nursing curriculum are: Clinical Judgment, Communication, Experiential Learning, Person-Centered Nursing Care, and Professional Identity and Leadership. They are defined as follows:

Integral Threads

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