The School of Nursing faculty have adopted an eclectic approach to curriculum that incorporates discipline-specific and interdisciplinary theories to guide the teaching of the art and science of nursing in both the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs. Individuals or clients are biopsychosocial beings who are influenced by their environment and from genetic, social, and life experiences to obtain optimal functioning.
Health exists on a continuum which varies from decreased functioning to optimal well-being.
Health can be maximized through the use of the nursing process and communication. The constructs of health, person, and nursing include extrinsic and intrinsic environmental factors. Extrinsic factors are those which originate outside the person while intrinsic factors lie within the person. To optimize the quality of health and functioning, the nurse uses analytical reasoning to maximize or minimize the influence of environmental factors. Society, an everchanging environmental system, is influenced by and influences economic, political, and sociocultural factors, including beliefs and values which influence nursing practice.