The philosophy of the Associate Degree Nursing (A.D.N.) program is congruent with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) mission statement and is supported by the works of Marjory Gordon and the National League for Nursing. The faculty believes that:
Each individual is a unique, holistic being with bio-psychosocial, cultural and spiritual dimensions in constant interaction with the environment. All human beings have in common certain functional patterns that contribute to their health, quality of life, and achievement of human potential.
Health is an optimal level of functioning that allows individuals, families or communities, to develop their potential to the fullest. Health is measured by parameters and norms combined with a client’s perception and includes multi-dimensional states of health and illness. Ideally, health is consistent with individual potential and allows nursing intervention to be individualized.
The environment is an aggregate of all the conditions and socio-cultural influences affecting the life and development of a person. Interaction between the client and the environment is an essential, common thread running through all functional patterns. The environment impacts the individual’s functional and dysfunctional patterns.
Nursing is the art and science of applying a specialized body of knowledge and skills in providing evidenced-based clinically competent care. The nursing process is used as a basis for nursing care decisions and client interaction. The goals of nursing include promoting independence, maintaining and restoring health, or supporting a peaceful death.
Nursing education belongs within institutions of higher learning and supports educational mobility. The affordability and accessibility of the community college provides and ideal setting for associate degree nursing education. The curriculum combines study in nursing and related disciplines. Associate degree nursing education is responsive to current economic, social, demographic and political forces, and to technological changes in transforming healthcare delivery.
Learning is an individual and lifelong process evidenced by changed behavior resulting from the acquisition of knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes. Learning in an educational setting is enhanced by a teacher/student relationship in which the teacher’s responsibility is to structure and facilitate optimal conditions for critical thinking and learning through clearly defined educational competencies. The student brings to this relationship the willingness to learn and is accountable for his/her education. Recognizing that both the rate and style of learning differ with individuals, various strategies are utilized to facilitate the student’s achievement of program competencies, attainment of maximum potential, and promotion of continued learning.
The A.D.N. graduate, having achieved the program competencies, is prepared to practice in a variety of settings within the parameters of individual knowledge and experience according to the standards of practice. The role of the A.D.N. graduate included provider of care, manager of care and member of the discipline. Encompassed within these roles are the core components of professional behaviors, communication, nursing process, clinical decision-making, caring interventions, teaching and learning, collaboration, and managing care.
