About

Responding to the needs of nursing education and health care of the people of the region, Lincoln Memorial University established the ASN degree program in 1974. As a reflection of the changing local health care needs and national trends in nursing, Lincoln Memorial University instituted the RN to BSN program in 1987. Both undergraduate programs are founded on the belief that nursing is a service which aims to assist individuals to attain, maintain, or regain optimum level wellness through application of the nursing process. To further assist with regional healthcare needs and to enhance nursing service across the lifespan, the MSN program was initiated to educate advanced practice nurses in 2006, and the BSN program commenced in 2010.

We, the Nursing Faculty of Lincoln Memorial University, Caylor School of Nursing, envision culturally diverse Faculty and students engaged in teaching, education, service, practice, and scholarship. Faculty desires to be excellent nurse educators, adhering to nationally recognized competencies and standards of nursing practice, while assisting undergraduate and graduate students to become qualified nurse professionals capable of adaptation, and promotion of adaptation, in the 21st century health care environment. The Caylor School of Nursing will develop, attain, and engage in unique educational programs and services for the surrounding regions. We desire to be recognized as providing excellent nursing programs of choice that value high academic, moral, and ethical standards.

In agreement with the University's mission and goals, the Faculty of the Caylor School of Nursing strives to instill responsibility and high moral/ethical standards in the preparation of quality nurses, at multiple levels of nursing education, through superior academic programs at the undergraduate and graduate level. Specifically, the mission of the Faculty is to prepare nurses with the ASN, BSN, and MSN degree, to assist individuals, families, communities, and society as they adapt to changes in physiological needs, role function, self-concept, and interdependent relationships during health and illness. The Caylor School of Nursing seeks to respond to the needs of nursing education and healthcare in the surrounding communities by preparing nurses at multiple levels and by providing continuing education/professional development opportunities that are rooted in knowledge, research, and other scholarly activities.

Nursing is a health care profession with a unique body of knowledge. The Caylor School of Nursing is viewed as a place where culturally diverse students and faculty actively engage in a teaching-learning process to attain and generate nursing knowledge. Faculty and students are partners in this process, creating unique learning opportunities. This knowledge can be imparted through multiple levels of nursing education, a design which is most responsive to community needs. The teaching-learning process fosters individual growth and goal attainment, which are manifested through changes in thinking and behavior.

The Faculty believes in multiple degree levels of nursing education and encourages the promotion of ongoing/continuing education for nurses. This education is based in an institution of higher learning, consists of both general education courses and nursing courses, and is provided by qualified Faculty on site, or may include alternate delivery methods, such as through distance education. Faculty serve as role models through nursing education, practice, service, and scholarship (as scholarship is defined by the University).

The Faculty acknowledge the ASN graduate's focus is care of persons with adaptive and/or ineffective health responses, whereas, the BSN graduate's focus is care of persons, groups, communities, and society with adaptive and/or ineffective health responses. Graduate education will prepare nurses to assume advanced practice roles including: practitioner, educator, researcher, advocate, consultant/collaborator, manager, and leader. Additionally, we agree that both undergraduate and graduate nursing education must be consistent with nationally recognized competencies and standards, including the APRN Consensus Model for Advanced Practice.

The Roy Adaptation Model (Roy, 2009) serves, along with national competencies and standards, as a comprehensive framework for the curriculum of the ASN and BSN programs. The Roy Model also provides, to a lesser extent, a conceptual basis for the masters program. The graduate program relies heavily upon national competencies and standards to direct the curriculum and provides the student with a comprehensive appraisal of multiple theoretical frameworks from which they may draw in their personal professional practice.

Fundamental to the Roy Adaptation Model "is the goal of enhancing life processes to promote adaptation" with adaptation viewed "as the process and outcome whereby thinking and feeling people, as individual or in groups, use conscious awareness and choice to create human and environmental integration" (Roy, 2009, p. 28).

Human persons are the focus of nursing endeavors and are viewed as an adaptive system. "As an adapative system, the human system is described as a whole with parts that function as a unity for some purpose. Human systems include people as individuals or in groups including families, organizations, communities, and society as a whole" (Roy, 2009, p. 27). Faculty also believe that humans as an adaptive system act to maintain adaptation in the four adaptive modes of the Roy Model: physiologic-physical, self concept-group identity, role function, and interdependence.

Environment is defined as "all conditions, circumstances, and influences that surround and affect the development and behavior of humans as adaptive systems, with particular consideration of human and earth resources" (Roy, 2009, p. 28). We believe that human persons interact with the changing environment and make either adaptive or ineffective responses.

Health is defined as "a state and a process of being and becoming an integrated and whole human" person (Roy, 2009, p. 27). The Faculty believes that responses by human persons that can be observed in the four adaptive modes are reflective of one's health state.

Nursing is defined "as a health care profession that focuses on the life processes and patterns of people with a commitment to promote health and full life-potential for individuals, families, groups and the global society" (Roy, 2009, p. 3). We view the goal of nursing practice as the promotion of adaptation in each of the four adaptive modes, "thus contributing to health, quality of life and dying with dignity by assessing behaviors and factors that influence adaptive abilities and by intervening to enhance environmental interventions (Roy, 2009, p. 29). The Faculty further believes that nursing practice is both an art and a scientific discipline, rooted in caring, cultural sensitivity/competence, a code of ethics, and standards of care and professional performance/practice. We believe all of these are essential for both provision of holistic, effective, quality nursing care; and for promotion of adaptation in humans across the lifespan, as individuals, or in groups, communities, and society as a whole in the 21st century healthcare environment.

Reference:
Roy, C. (2009). The Roy Adaptation Model (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson