We emphasize to students the importance of personal responsibility for their learning while they are enrolled at Colby-Sawyer College because we anticipate they will need to continue learning throughout their professional lives. In addition to a liberal education, the core components of the program in Nursing include the competencies and knowledge essential to basic nursing practice, the values of the healing professions, and the development of the professional role of the nurse. The philosophy of the Department of Nursing is a statement of the faculty's beliefs about nursing, health, the persons for whom we care, and the environment in which nursing care is provided. Because the philosophy shapes the curriculum, it is necessary to define these terms. Nursing is a caring science and a healing art, grounded in professional values and ethics, and practiced as the systematic application of knowledge and competencies for the benefit of those who require nursing care.
Nursing care is provided across the health continuum.
This includes support for and promotion of health during normative transitions across the lifespan, restoration of optimal health in response to events that compromise health, prevention of predictable events that compromise health, management and maintenance of optimal health for persons with chronic illness and disability. Care is person-centered, and is provided where care is needed, regardless of setting, with attention to continuity of care across settings. It is a dynamic and variable state, a transaction between persons and their environments. Persons who require nursing care are individuals, families, and communities who are experiencing or can be expected to experience variations in health. Individuals, families and communities comprise the fundamental units of humanity.