Philosophy of the Yancey School of Nursing

Consistent with the philosophy of Kentucky Christian University, the faculty of the Yancey School of Nursing subscribes to the following beliefs about the individual, health, environment, nursing, and nursing education.

Individual

• Each individual is a physically, psycho socially, and spiritually integrated being endowed with dignity and worth who is created in God's image and has the capacity to live in a loving relationship with God, self, others, and the environment.
• Each individual possesses self-direction and can be a responsible steward of God's gifts of health and the environment.
• Each individual is a part of larger groups such as the family, community, and global village.
• The family is composed of two or more individuals that may be related or have special bonds.
• The family is critical to the establishment and maintenance of biblical values, including moral integrity, ethical principle, and human dignity, and creates an environment that influences the physical, cognitive, psycho social, attitudinal, and spiritual development of its members.
• Community, as a social support system, may be based on geography, shared interests, or shared characteristics with the size varying from a small group to the global village.
• Because of modern communication and travel, community has no boundaries.
• Nurses must function as managers and leaders in a larger health care community of professionals and nonprofessionals using effective communication, collaboration, partnerships, and empowerment to achieve health goals.

Health

• Health is being able to optimally function as God originally created man; health will never be complete on this earth but can only be realized in eternity, returning to an ideal state.
• Health is an individual perception of and satisfaction with one's ability to optimally function.
• An individual's connections with the family, community, and global village can function to facilitate health.

Environment

• All factors that can affect an individual's behavior but that are external to that individual are considered to be the environment and include both physical and spiritual realities.

Nursing

• Nurses as role models must endeavor to pursue healthy lifestyles, promote wellness within the family, community, and global village and effect social change that promotes a healthy environment.
• Nurses must be able to make responsible moral and ethical decisions and think logically, analytically, and critically.
• Nurses must know how to seek, find, and use health information and commit to lifelong learning.
• Nurses must be skilled contributors to their profession, committed to serving the needs of others, regardless of ethnic identity, race, gender, age, status, diagnosis, or ability to pay.
• Using Jesus Christ as a model of servant leadership, nursing is a ministry of compassionate, competent, and comprehensive physical, psycho social, and spiritual caring, even if the nurse's personal beliefs do not coincide with those of the individual, family, or community receiving her/his care.

Nursing Education

• Nursing education must provide a learning environment in which liberal education, biblical values, and effective working relationships between faculty and students enable students to integrate general concepts into nursing practice.
• Students and teachers must share responsibility for the teaching-learning environment, course content, and learning strategies through ongoing evaluation of the curriculum.
• The role of the faculty is to facilitate learning by being mentors and role models.
• Nursing education is an interactive process between faculty and students in which students are responsible and accountable for their own learning, and faculty provide the necessary support and resources.