The Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program goals and student learning outcomes support the mission, goals, and objectives of Sumner College and are aligned to the current baccalaureate nursing competencies set forth by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials: Core competencies for professional nursing education. The program conceptual framework includes The Nightingale Lamp Insignia of Nursing and Learning • The lamp represents the warmth of caring • The oil represents the energy and commitment of the nurse to heal others • The light symbolizes the striving for excellence The American Association of Colleges of Nursing Essentials: Core competencies for Professional Nursing Education (2021) serve as the framework for the curriculum. The Essentials and Competencies include: 10 Domains, Competencies, and Sub-competencies. These provide the curricular elements and framework for professional nursing education for the twenty-first century and have guided the development of the program. Nursing generalist practice includes both direct and indirect care for patients, which includes individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations. The 4 Spheres of Care include: Wellness, Disease Prevention; Chronic Disease Care; Regenerative / Restorative Care; and Hospice / Palliative Care. Nursing practice is built on nursing knowledge, theory, and research. In addition, nursing practice derives knowledge from a wide array of other fields and professions, adapting and applying this knowledge as appropriate to professional practice (AACN, 2021). The curriculum includes a solid base in liberal education including the biological, mathematics, social sciences, and the humanities. Knowledge from liberal education supports critical decision making of the professional nurse. The professional nurse cares for diverse populations across the lifespan. A liberal education assists in the development of personal values and goals supporting ethical clinical judgment throughout their practice working with a variety of populations and cultures (AACN, 2021). As members of the healthcare team the baccalaureate prepared nurse utilizes concepts of organizational and systems leadership, quality improvement and safety to assess for risk and advocate for improvements in quality and safety. Leadership is a process of influence in which nurse leaders guide others toward goal achievement skills to enhance patient safety and improve quality of patient outcomes. Concepts are included in the curriculum to provide knowledge of health care policy, finance, delivery systems and regulatory environments needed in decision making and demonstrate professional standards of moral, ethical, and legal nursing practice (AACN, 2021). The World Health Organization (2014) recommended that educational institutions should consider using educational pathways that are streamlined for the advancement of practicing health professionals. As discussed in the Institute of Medicine report (2011), the program serves as an educational pathway to the attainment of graduate degrees in nursing. Continued education and professional development are encouraged and expected of students and nursing faculty. The students are introduced to a wide range of concepts and theories including community, public, global health, leadership, and quality improvement. Recommendation 7 calls upon nursing education programs to “integrate leadership theory and business practices across the curriculum” (IOM, 2011, p. 5). Leadership and management concepts are included throughout the curriculum. Based on Florence Nightingale’s philosophy of nursing the nursing program has developed the OMEGA-7, which is an acronym for a nurse assessment and caring of person’s health and environment: Orientation, Medication, Emergency, Gait, Allergies—the 7 are: air, food, water, safety, hygiene, pain, and sleep. The OMEGA-7 elements provide the conceptual framework for critical thinking in approaching healthcare and the nursing process. The essentials of “OMEGA-7” provide the conceptual framework for critical thinking in approaching health and the nursing process. OMEGA-7 is an acronym for a practical nurse approach in nursing assessment and caring of the person’s health and environmental basic needs: Orientation, Medication, Emergency, Gait, Allergies—air, food, water, safety, hygiene, pain and sleep. The elements of OMEGA-7 are based upon the theory of the pioneer of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale (1820 – 1910). The OMEGA-7 data collection or assessment includes: Orientation: Is the person oriented to person, place, time, and situation? Medication: Does the person know what medications they are taking and for what? Are there any special instructions, monitoring, side effects to watch for, or nursing interventions for any of the medications
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