Nursing

The faculty of the Nursing Program at Santa Monica College embraces the College's vision by fostering core values: knowledge, skills and attitudes, ethical behavior, teamwork and collaboration, communication, and global awareness.

The faculty of the Nursing Program at Santa Monica College embraces the College's mission of excellence in education. The purpose of the nursing program is to prepare graduates to function as registered nurses with a foundation for lifelong learning to enhance professional and educational growth. SMC nursing graduates are prepared to practice in a variety of settings to meet physical, psychosocial, spiritual. cultural, diverse needs of patients, families and communities in a rapidly changing, technologically healthcare environment.

The graduate of Santa Monica College nursing program will be able to work within a variety of settings and provide care for patients of diverse groups in a multicultural community. The program student learning outcomes are:

1. Delegate tasks based on the legal scopes of practice.
2. Collaborate with members of the health team to provide a caring and compassionate environment conducive to assisting in the fulfillment of heath care needs.
3. Advocate for patients and families in ways that promote self-determination.
4. Exhibit clinical reasoning and judgment in practice substantiated with evidence that integrates nursing science and technology in the provision of safe quality care that promotes the health of patients across a variety of settings.

The SMC Nursing program provides high quality education to meet health care needs of diverse persons with knowledge, skills, and attitudes to engage in quality care. The SMC Nursing Program is committed to advancing the science and art of nursing by empowering graduates to value safety, teamwork and collaboration, patient centered care, quality improvement, informatics, evidence based and commitment to lifelong learning The values of the Santa Monica College Nursing Program are caring, inclusivity, integrity, and civility.

The faculty believe that the person is holistic, social, and culturally diverse with integrated body, mind. and spirit existing within the context of families, groups, and communities. Each person is unique, has dignity and self-worth. the potential for change, and the right to self-determination. Each person has different capacities and vulnerabilities, and the potential to affect his/her human responses and health outcomes throughout the life cycle.

Health is viewed by the faculty as a state of physical, mental. social and spiritual well being. It is influenced by one's perceptions, experiences, and culture. The Health - Illness Continuum is a dynamic process that reflects the view of the World Health Organization (WHO). Health is "a state of well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity". When a person reaches the end of life, the goal is for the person to experience peace and end life with dignity.

Nursing is a professional discipline with a defined body of knowledge which focuses on actual or potential health problems. Nurses promote the image of nursing by modeling the values, ethics, standards, and attitudes of the nursing profession. The nursing faculty recognizes that professional nursing accountability underpins safe and effective nursing practice. Professional nursing accountability is defined as: "Taking responsibility for one's nursing judgments, actions, and omissions as they relate to life-long learning, maintaining competency, and upholding both quality patient care outcomes and standards of the profession while being answerable to those who are influenced by one's nursing practice" (Krautscheid, 2014). The faculty believes caring empowers the nurse to recognize the inherent worth of each individual and group and to promote health, healing, and hope.

The faculty view nursing education as a dynamic process that upholds the principles of life-long learning and respects previous knowledge that the student brings to the educational environment. Nursing education provides theoretical knowledge that prepares the student to practice in ways that facilitate and promote health of persons, families, and diverse communities. Competent care is provided and managed through utilization of the systematic clinical reasoning method called the nursing process.

The teaching - learning process is contextual and the faculty promotes learning through an interactive student centered environment. The nursing faculty believes the teaching - learning process include a variety of teaching methodologies. The nursing faculty are facilitators, and role models. Learning is ongoing and fosters discovery. The teaching - learning  environment is influenced by student dimensions including: culture. ethnicity, gender, learning styles, goals. and support systems.