Inspired by the Regis University vision of leadership in the service of others, the Loretto Heights School of Nursing's goals are to:
- Provide a learning environment that is individualized, innovative, supportive, and motivating to a culturally diverse student population,
- Foster a holistic, values-centered approach to learning that integrates liberal arts and professional nursing education,
- Encourage meaningful interaction between faculty and students that enhances intellectual growth and professional development,
- Promote intellectual curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, cultural sensitivity, and a commitment to lifelong learning,
- Develop professional nursing competency based upon respect and caring for all individuals,
- Foster the development of written and verbal communication skills that are fundamental to the mission, and
- Support opportunities for faculty and students to contribute to the profession, and community.
Continuing the Tradition...Developing inquisitive minds, compassionate hearts and healing hands.
The Loretto Heights School of Nursing's philosophy builds upon the Art of Nursing and the Science of Nursing within the Jesuit Tradition as reflected in the mission, goals, and values of Regis University and the Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions. The Art of Nursing encompasses the caring and relational aspects of practice. The Science of Nursing includes those aspects of the discipline and practice grounded in professional standards and research evidence. The Jesuit Tradition guides education that is values oriented. The purpose of Regis University has always been and will continue to be forming "men and women, young and old, empowered in mind and heart, who will be leaders in service."
The Loretto Heights School of Nursing prides itself on adapting its curriculum to be responsive to the changing needs of society, while also continuing to reflect the nursing profession’s and accrediting bodies’ standards.
Students are challenged to strive for excellence and embrace the Jesuit concepts of the Magis, while they develop their knowledge, skills, values and relationships. Service learning is incorporated into each degree program because we believe it is important for health care professionals to connect academic coursework with community-based opportunities and inter-cultural experiences. Each person is continually influencing and being influenced by internal and external aspects of their environment. Awareness of this can help create a favorable environment, which in turn enhances the health status of individuals and society.
The undergraduate curriculum is designed to develop nurses who are able to provide generalist professional nursing services to the community of interest, be they individuals, families, groups, communities, and/or health care organizations. With this aim in mind, the undergraduate curriculum is framed around four arms that embrace Professional Values, Core Knowledge, Role Development, and Core Competencies.
Professional Values:
- Personal values, experiences, and knowledge influence our students' Professional Values; and
- Students have the capacity to grow, to change, and to make choices about their values.
Professional Values:
- Respect for human dignity, the inherent worth of individuals and populations;
- Holism, the inseparability of mind, body and spirit;
- Autonomy, the right of clients' self-determination;
- Integrity, acting in accordance with one's personal and professional code of ethics and nursing standards of practice;
- Professional accountability, behavior supportive of an effective nurse-client relationship including respect, dependability, appearance, demeanor, and responsibility for one's actions;
- Leaders in Service to others, in the Ignatian tradition,
- Social Justice, demanding from each individual all that is necessary for the common good and;
- Spirituality, the meaning one places on life, purpose, and God are prominent threads throughout the curriculum.
Core Knowledge:
(Includes cognitive, affective and psychomotor knowledge and skills essential to the safe practice of nursing):
- Health Promotion / Risk Reduction / Disease Prevention enables a nurse to identify and reduce health risks, prevent illness and injury and promote a sense of well-being;
- Illness / Disease Management assists the health care team in maintenance, curative, restorative and rehabilitative interventions and are essential to implementation of the nursing process in clinical practice;
- Health Care Technology includes information technology and technologies that aid assessment and support human function and are the cores to the delivery and language of care;
- Study of Ethics is values, codes, and principles that govern decisions and behaviors and their application as individuals and a profession that underpin the ongoing practice of nursing;
- Evidence-Based Practice is using best practices in health care, including research, patient preferences, professional standards and conventional wisdom, to provide optimal care;
- Human diversity emphasize the respect of the individual as a member of society with similarities and differences according to one's culture and belief system;
- Global Health develops an understanding of the health, disease, and justice implications of living in a connected world; and
- Health Care Systems / Policy is knowledge of the organizations and environments in which nursing and health care are provided and is integral to providing access to quality nursing care within the constraints of the realities of cost; now and in the future.
Role Development:
- Care Provider uses theory and research-based knowledge in direct and indirect care with patients in partnership with other health care professionals;
- Care Designer / Manager / Coordinator provides guidance to patients, families, groups, and communities in navigating the health care system with professional care givers in the application of outcome-based care models;
- Life-long Learner is ongoing personal, professional, and spiritual development; and
- Member of the Profession internalizes professional values and acts accordingly.
Core Competencies:
- Critical Thinking is a deeper level of thinking that involves information gathering, questioning, interpreting, logic, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, reasoning, evaluating, intuition, and creativity.
- Assessment is the gathering of information in order to understand the patient, family, group, or community as well as using data from health care organizations systems in planning care;
- Implementation is the process of providing nursing interventions competently and compassionately based upon assessment data, critical thinking and decision making, knowledge of standards of nursing practice. It involves both technical skills and therapeutic communications;
- Decision-Making is analyzing and synthesizing assessment data in making judgments, solving problems and, in nursing, setting health outcomes;
- Evaluation is drawing conclusions based on data in relation to planned outcomes;
- Technical Skills include the psycho-motor, communication, and cognitive skills essential to the performance of health assessment and nursing interventions as well as teaching, delegating and supervising the performance of skilled tasks by others;
- Communication involves verbal and nonverbal interactions with others including clients and families, groups and communities, in which it forms a therapeutic relationship supportive of and essential to nursing assessment, interventions and evaluation.
- Compassion is empathetic understanding of others.
- Collaboration is working jointly with others in the spirit of cooperation.
The graduate curriculum is designed to educate nurses for advanced roles who are able to provide professional nursing services to the community of interest, be they individuals, students, families, groups, communities, and/or health care organizations. With this aim in mind, the graduate curriculum is framed around four arms that embrace Core Knowledge, Professional Values, Core Competencies, and Role Development.
Core Knowledge:
- Specialty Knowledge – the knowledge required to practice within an advanced nursing role;
- Ethics – values, codes, and principles that govern decisions and behaviors and their application as individuals and a profession that underpin the ongoing practice of nursing;
- Research Application – the knowledge and skills to access current and relevant data needed to provide high quality health care, initiate change, and improve nursing practice;
- Evidence-Based Practice – using best practices in health care, including research, patient preferences, professional standards and conventional wisdom, to provide optimal care;
- Respect for human diversity – valuing the individual as a member of society with similarities and differences according to one's culture and belief system;
- Health Care Financing – the comprehension of the cost implications of health care delivery
- Scope of Practice – the knowledge of the professional responsibilities of registered nurses engaged in advanced nursing roles;
- Organization of Health Care Systems – the knowledge of ways health care is structured and delivered;
- Health Care Policy – the knowledge and influences of laws and regulatory agencies directed to promote the health of the public, and
- Theoretical Frameworks – the knowledge of a wide range of theories from nursing and other sciences that are incorporated into nursing practice.
Professional Values:
- Respect for human dignity, the inherent worth of individuals and populations and the respect for others and their perspectives;
- Holism, the inseparability of mind, body and spirit;
- Advocacy, honoring rights to involvement and self-determination in decisions about health management;
- Autonomy, functioning independently, interdependently, and when called for, dependently with the interdisciplinary health care team;
- Integrity, acting in accordance with one's personal and professional code of ethics and nursing standards of practice;
- Professional accountability, being responsible for the scope of practice as defined by the state nurse practice act and the rules and regulations for nurses in advanced roles;
- Leaders in Service to others, in the Ignatian tradition,
- Social Justice, demanding from each individual all that is necessary for the common good to cultivate respect for human diversity, and strengthen a special concern for the poor, the marginalized, disenfranchised and the oppressed;
- Spirituality, the meaning one places on life, purpose, and God are prominent threads throughout the curriculum, and
- Global Awareness, recognizing the interconnectedness of global societies, environment, and health.
Core Competencies:
- Spectral Thinking – critical, creative, network, systems and reflective thinking;
- Integration of Global Issues – incorporating the nursing meta-paradigm (nursing, environment, person, health) with global and cultural perspectives in addressing health related issues;
- Inter-professional Collaboration – coordination and integration the expertise of individuals and multiple professionals in health care, education of clients and interaction with organizations;
- Cultural Competence – knowledge, attitudes, and skills which enable the provision of culturally appropriate, congruent and relevant health care;
- Effective Use of Resources – the promotion of the effective utilization of finite resources in the provision of health care and education within a specific health care environment;
- Technology Utilization – integration and extension of technological resources to promote effective health care and education;
- Independent Decision Making – the integration of personal knowledge and experiences with collaborative inter-professional expertise in the provision of autonomous health care or education;
- Advanced Nursing Roles of Nurse Practitioner, the Manager, or Educator Competencies are defined by accrediting and professional organizations.
Role Development:
- Health Care Leader – a communicator with vision who analyzes problems, finds and implements solutions, and structures and facilitates processes to make a positive impact on society as it relates to health care;
- Promoter of the Nursing Profession – a registered nurse who is accountable for advocating for the sustainable practice of nursing and protecting the public interest when providing the unique service society has entrusted to them;
- Advanced Nurse Role – a registered nurse practicing in the role of Manager, Educator, Family Nurse Practitioner or Neonatal Nurse Practitioner in nursing practice; and
- Life-long Learner. The graduate prepared nurse is dedicated to ongoing personal, professional, and spiritual growth.