The College of Nursing offers two undergraduate programs, each leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science. The undergraduate curriculum in both programs emphasizes critical thinking, clinical decision making, therapeutic interventions, and communication skills. The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics and Professional Standards of Practice for basic practices guides all clinical learning activities. In the sophomore year,students are taught to interact with individuals using successive phases of the nursing process. They acquire skills in observation and communication necessary to assess an individual's needs,set measurable and realistic goals of nursing care, and devise a plan of care to attain the goals.
Students acquire the basic nursing skills to implement the care plan.
They evaluate the outcome of the nursing care plan in accordance with the goals previously set. In the junior year, the scope of the students' experiences broadens to include family groups and populations at risk. Students develop skills in caring for acutely ill adults, childbearing and childrearing families in the hospital and community,as well as populations at risk in communities. The family as a unit of care,as well as populations at risk in communities, become the foci for the nursing process. In the senior year, the students learn to interact with persons at all levels of the hospital and long-term care structures, and with individuals in social and welfare agencies that impact the distribution of health care.