Mission, Vision, Core Values, & Program Outcomes
Mission
USCA School of Nursing seeks to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to care for diverse individuals and populations across the lifespan and in various healthcare settings regionally and globally.
Vision
To empower the next generation of nurses to optimize healthcare in local, national, and global communities.
Philosophy
The faculty believe:
- Nursing, as an art and science, is a vital component of health care.
- High-impact teaching practices facilitate connections between theories and principles from the liberal arts and competency-based nursing education.
- Nursing practices utilized clinical judgement and evidence-based practice to deliver safe quality care to individuals, families, and populations, respecting the individuality of each client.
- Graduates will be prepared to practice in a rapidly changing, complex healthcare system.
- A Commitment to professional development and lifelong learning is necessary to maintain nursing competence.
Core Values
| Caring Integrity Diversity Collaboration Communication |
Advocacy Respect Excellence Innovation Leadership |
The BSN curriculum has a foundation in the liberal arts and sciences, and its design reflects congruence with standards of professional nursing practice and the School of Nursing mission, vision, philosophy, core values, and the BSN program outcomes.
The curriculum for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program has an organizing framework from which course objectives and learning outcomes are derived. The process of curriculum construction was deliberate and guided by educational principles and standards for professional nursing practice. Course objectives are leveled across the curriculum in a logical sequence moving from simple to complex.
Program Outcomes
The BSN curriculum at USCA was designed to develop competencies prescribed in The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Education (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2021).
Graduates of the School of Nursing at USCA will possess competencies in these areas:
- Knowledge for Nursing Practice: The graduate will demonstrate clinical judgment in the delivery of competent care supported by a broad knowledge and theoretical base in nursing and other sciences, liberal arts, and humanities.
- Person-Centered Care: The graduate will cultivate caring relationships that respect the dignity of individuals, families, and communities through advocacy, health assessment, planning, facilitation of care, education, and evaluation of outcomes across the four spheres of care.
- Population Health: The graduate will assess and apply strategies for the health and well-being of communities through advocacy, prevention, prioritization, and mobilization of care for endemic emerging health problems.
- Scholarship for the Nursing Discipline: The graduate will identify, synthesize, and apply research evidence into the design, delivery, and evaluation of evidence-based nursing care across the wellness-illness continuum.
- Quality and Safety: The graduate will participate in the identification, development, delivery, and ongoing evaluation of individual and multidisciplinary services, activities, and functions that facilitate delivery of safe, high-quality care.
- Inter-professional Partnerships: The graduate will collaborate with members of the multidisciplinary healthcare team using professional verbal and written communication to promote effective problem-solving and delivery of holistic care.
- Systems-Based Practice: The graduate will articulate the interconnectedness of nursing and the complex healthcare delivery system, emphasizing the role of the professional nurse within an organizational structure and in the provision of cost-effective, high-quality care across the wellness-illness continuum.
- Informatics and Healthcare Technologies: The graduate will utilize digital resources and technologies and interact with telehealth platforms to deliver safe patient care and facilitate communication between patients and healthcare providers in a variety of settings.
- Professionalism: The graduate will provide nursing care that represents the professional identity of nursing, is grounded in ethical principles, and is in accordance with the scope and standards of practice for professional registered nurses.
- Personal, Professional, and Leadership Development: The graduate will demonstrate personal and professional responsibility through self-care, life-long learning, and the development of capacity for leadership.
Application to the School of Nursing
To access the application, you will login as a 'Returning User,' not a 'First Time User.' Use the same email address and password you used to apply for admission to the university. If you do not remember the email you used, call the Admissions Office at 803-641-3366 and they can assist you.
Contact Us
Application to the School of Nursing
You must first apply for admission to the university, and then apply to the SON. To access the application, you will login as a 'Returning User,' not a 'First Time User.' Use the same email address and password you used to apply for admission to the university. If you do not remember the email you used, call the Admissions Office at 803-641-3366 and they can assist you.