The philosophy of the nursing program of Saint Elizabeth University supports the mission and goals of the University. The faculty believe that professional nursing is both an art and science. The integration of nursing knowledge and skills into a Catholic liberal arts framework enhances creativity and supports adjustment to the constantly changing demands of life and career in a global society. The philosophy of the nursing program also expresses the belief that professional nursing care is based on a holistic approach to the client system.

The faculty in the Nursing Program at Saint Elizabeth University believe that the professional nurse is postured to respond to the healthcare needs of a global society. Professional nursing education develops the student to engage in the nursing process with the goal of promoting the health of individuals, families, communities and populations through advocacy and change. 

Nursing is concerned with all of the variables affecting an individual’s response to stressors and directs its actions at stabilizing client systems in a dynamic state of equilibrium. The goal of nursing is to achieve optimal client stability through purposeful intervention that includes a concern for the client’s spiritual, physiological, socio-cultural, developmental, and psychological dimensions and in relationship to the environment. The environment is composed of all internal and external forces influencing the person or client system. The faculty believe that an understanding of the unique environment of the client system is critical to the role of the nurse in enhancing health. Nurses must be committed to change within the profession and approach nursing as an evidence-based scientific discipline with a moral end. 
The faculty believe that there is a developing body of knowledge central to the metaparadigm of nursing which includes the components of client, environment, health, and nursing. 

Client

Each client, created in the image of God, is a unique dynamic composite of the interrelationship of physiological, psychological, socio-cultural, developmental and spiritual variables. People are organized, integrated holistic beings endowed with dignity and worth and can only be understood in relation to their totality. They are open systems, having the capacity to influence their own environments, and are in a state of constant change. While unique, persons share a common range of responses across these variables with other human beings.
People have the capacity for growth, the potential for freedom of choice and the right to seek optimum health. People have innate and learned responses that enable them to respond to stressors, to interact with, and adjust to or modify the environment. The person can be viewed as an individual client system or as part of a larger system such as a family, group, community or organization.

Environment

The environment is composed of all internal and external forces influencing the person or client system. The internal environment consists of those forces within an individual system. The external forces occur outside the client system and between individual systems. The relationship between the client system and the environment is a reciprocal one of continuous interaction: the environment influences the client system and the client system influences the environment. As the client system evolves, it strives to be in a state of dynamic interaction and balance with the environment. 

The faculty believe that an understanding of the unique environment of the client system is critical to the role of the nurse in enhancing health. Stressors arise within the environment and have the potential to initiate a reaction in the client system. This reaction can have positive or negative outcomes. The outcomes can be influenced by the nurse to achieve the best possible state of wellness for the client system. One’s perception of this environment influences one’s ability to respond to stressors. This can be a conscious or unconscious process. 

Health

The health of each client from a holistic viewpoint is seen as a dynamic state on a multidimensional continuum from wellness to illness. It may be defined as optimal system stability. Health is the view of the person as a composite of physiological, psychological, sociocultural, spiritual and developmental variables in harmony with each other and the environment. 

These variables are continuously interacting with the environment as an open, flexible, changeable system. The internal-external interaction with any of the variables and/or environmental factors may enhance wellness as well as create barriers to achieving maximum wellness. Each individual, family, group, community, organization and system is unique as it relates to the perception of wellness and the ability to respond to stressors, to mobilize assistance from others and to learn new behaviors.

Nursing

Nursing is a unique profession that provides essential service to society and is based in the arts and sciences. It is a discipline that makes real the healing ministry of the Church. Nursing involves the diagnosis and treatment of human responses to actual or potential health problems. The central concern of nursing is the well-being of the total person. The basis of nursing is the therapeutic relationship between nurse and client system. To achieve the potential of this relationship, nurses must provide health information readily, share power equitably, encourage clients to assume responsibility for their own health status, and assist client systems.

The goal of nursing is to achieve optimal client stability through purposeful intervention which includes a concern for the client’s spiritual, physiological, socio-cultural, developmental, and psychological dimensions. Nurses assist clients to clarify their own values, identify their health goals and understand the choices available to achieve optimal health. Nursing actions include preventative, therapeutic, and rehabilitative interventions. Professional nurses perform direct patient care; assess factors associated with the nature and shape of the healthcare system; work together as part of the healthcare team; recognize the changing role of consumers in the maintenance of their own health and advocate for the client and the nursing profession. Professional nursing standards as well as nursing theory and a sound Catholic liberal arts educational basis guide the nurse’s actions to attain this goal. 

The nurse is a full partner in the healthcare delivery system. At the baccalaureate level, the nurse is a generalist and a leader. At the master’s level, the nurse moves into an advanced practice role specializing in educational and leadership roles. All nursing roles are best realized when the nurse has an in-depth knowledge of person, family, group, community and environment. Nurses are responsible for promoting maximum health at whatever point the client is encountered along the health-illness continuum. Based on the health status of the system, the nurse provides three separate but interrelated categories of prevention: primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.

Interventions

Interventions are carried out in complex systems and involve collaborative relationships with clients and other health team members. Nurses are accountable for the ethical conduct of these interventions in accordance with the standards of nursing practice. The nurse’s ability to give direct care must be complemented with the ability to assess, plan, coordinate, collaborate, delegate, educate, advocate, and evaluate. 

The nursing process involves interrelated cognitive, attitudinal, behavioral, technical, and interpersonal skills in which the nurse plays a leadership role. Nurses must be able to articulate and act from a personal value system and a respect for the beliefs of client systems, their environment, and their health. Nursing practice must be congruent with professional standards and ethical practice. This is achieved at SEU through curriculum based in the Catholic liberal arts tradition, with a strong multi-disciplinary approach and with emphasis on the spiritual and ethical development of the student.