Program Mission
The BSN Completion (BSN-C) Program is a post-licensure degree program administered by the College of Arts and Sciences. The program curriculum combines the University’s mission with the requirements contained within the Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). The UMW Mission and AACN Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice and the program’s student learning outcomes are all congruent.
Effective speaking and listening are essential components of a liberal arts education. Consequently, the University of Mary Washington requires that all students complete Speaking-Intensive (SI) courses and Writing Intensive (WI) courses as part of their graduation requirements. Speaking and Writing Intensive courses are included in the BSN-C Program curriculum. The BSN-C Program’s general education requirements are earned at a community college, and include six credits of English composition. The BSN-C Program further developments writing skills in our students by including (as the first course in the BSN-C program) ENGL 308 Writing Studies & Healing. This is an approved WI courses which was designed specifically for the BSN-C Program. In addition, NURS 410 Evidence-Based Nursing Research and NURS 490 Practicum are both approved WI courses.
To ensure the development of speaking skills, most community college students are encouraged to take a course in public speaking during their RN program. To continue the development of these speaking skills, our BSN-C students are required to complete NURS 320 Holistic Health Assessment and NURS 490 Practicum, both of which are approved SI courses.
The BSN-C Program provides a superior education that inspires and enables nurses to make positive changes in the world and prepares them for lifelong learning and professional creativity. The program continues the UMW tradition of liberal arts education by including three higher-level liberal arts courses within the program curriculum. These courses were selected to widen the student’s perspective of the social aspects of healthcare and medical-ethical decision making; to develop the ability to write using their nursing voice; and to use writing as a tool to deal with the stresses of the nursing profession.
Students are mentored by professionally engaged faculty whose focus is the provision of high-quality instruction. The faculty team includes nursing leaders in the community who will help students to identify and improve the delivery of patient care through the use of nursing research and evidenced-based practice. Program graduates will be able to practice nursing within a complex healthcare system and assume the roles of care provider, designer, manager, and coordinator. Students will be prepared to transition to health promotion and disease prevention healthcare provided in the community. In addition, students will be prepared to continue their nursing education to the graduate level.
BSN-C Program graduates are models of adaptive learners, personal achievement, responsible leadership, service to others, and engaged citizenship providing healthcare to a diverse society. The program fulfills its mission by immersing students and faculty in the local healthcare communities.
Graduates of the UMW BSN Completion Program are prepared to:
- Examine the concepts of professionalism and fundamental beliefs to nursing, which include the inherent values of altruism, autonomy, human dignity, integrity, social justice and ethics.
- Create intra- and inter-professional partnerships, characterized by teamwork, collaboration, and oral and written communication to deliver high-quality, safe patient care.
- Evaluate healthcare policy and finance and regulatory practices to influence the allocation of health resources in order to reduce health disparities.
- Utilize the nursing process when practicing caring, competent, holistic, and patient-centered nursing care with individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations from diverse backgrounds in a variety of settings across the lifespan.
- Evaluate nursing research to determine best practices and translate current evidence into professional nursing practice.
- Formulate plans of care which promote health and prevent disease for individuals, families, groups, populations, and communities in complex situations.
- Synthesize a liberal arts education, knowledge of nursing science, and critical thinking skills to support inter-professional partnerships which focus on health promotion and disease prevention.
- Compare and contrast leadership knowledge, skills, and attitudes to promoting safe, high-quality care with a focus on continued evaluation and improvement within a variety of health care settings.
- Utilize information management knowledge and skills by employing technology and information systems to create safe patient care and enhanced decision-making in a variety of health care settings.