The faculty believe that health is dynamic, encompassing well-being and illness. It is individually defined. The present and future challenge is to empower individuals, families, groups, and communities to assume greater responsibility for health. Nursing, like other professions, is an essential part of the society out of which it grew and with which it has been evolving. Health care professionals need to be sensitive to the influence of these factors on their practice and on the health care system.
Nursing is practiced wherever people are, at their particular level of health.
The health client may be an individual, a family, a group, or a community. In the caring relationship, the health client and the nurse participate in a deliberative process in which perceptions of health are clarified and the nurse's perception of the client's health are validated. The nurse helps clients to move toward well-being by identifying resources as well as challenges. The process requires a mutual selection of health goals and the means for attaining them. Baccalaureate education, reflecting a strong foundation in the liberal arts and sciences and a research-based, evolving, body of nursing science, prepares graduates for professional practice.