Jump to section
Purpose
The Nursing Department at MCHP is committed to enhancing the quality of life in the community; providing career education in a most effective and efficient manner; expanding an individual’s intellectual skills; kindling an ongoing desire to learn; strengthening one’s capacity to reason and to solve everyday problems of living; and making mature decisions relating to current issues in a rapidly changing social system.
Philosophy
The philosophy of the nursing faculty is based on the belief that a society sustains itself with an educated citizenry capable of influencing its destiny in a responsible manner. Education is designed to promote individual growth and freedom of choice. Thus, we believe that at least two years of education beyond high school level is essential. We also believe that students should be assured of an opportunity to expand their perspective. General education courses taken at MCHP and/or regionally accredited colleges and universities provide a milieu for diversity and choice, which increases the students’ opportunity for growth and self-development. Formal education provides an opportunity for individuals to develop problem-solving skills.
Person: We believe that human life is valuable, that people are important and deserve respect. People are holistic beings – unique individuals, developing according to a defined pattern. In addition, individuals are biopsychosocial beings with specific hierarchical needs which, if not met, have predictable patterns of response.
Health and illness are individual perceptions which are influenced by a person’s culture, experiences, and values.
Individuals are potentially autonomous and have certain rights, responsibilities, and choices. Therefore, we believe that individuals have the right to know and to make choices regarding their health-related activities. We believe that social responsibilities and individual worth are the ultimate products of humanistic philosophy.
Nursing: Nursing is a helping profession concerned with meeting the needs of individuals and groups who are healthy or ill. Nursing by its nature means care. It is directed toward health promotion, restoration of health and provision of comfort when restoration of health is no longer possible. Nursing is concerned with the quality of life and the quality of health care for all individuals regardless of their values and beliefs. Nursing is directed toward nurturing growth, recovery, health and protection for individuals and groups.
Education: Education is the action or process of acquiring knowledge and developing skills. Formal education is a series of planned learning experiences designed to provide opportunities for the acquisition of new knowledge to change behavior and meet program objectives. The educational process provides opportunities for students to develop living skills. Informal education occurs because of life experiences and should be recognized and incorporated into their continuing education.
General Education: The faculty members believe that general education is an essential concept of life-long learning. We believe that our program’s general education requirement provides the student with academic diversity, expansion of both creative and critical thought processes, and opportunity for personal and intellectual growth. Pursuit of general education creates an atmosphere of intellectual exchange which affects society through application of biopsychological sciences and humanities principles. Furthermore, we as a faculty believe that general education provides an established foundation for the pursuit of higher education facilitating the adult learner’s diverse educational goals.
Nursing Education: Nursing education is a process of formal education by which the student acquires the specialized theories and concepts necessary for the specific level of practice. A curriculum in nursing education should facilitate integration and application of this knowledge. This education provides an opportunity for a student to learn the roles, functions, and skills of nurses.
The faculty members believe the educational preparation of the nurse determines the scope of practice. An increasing awareness of the needs of previously neglected groups in society demand that practitioners have different functions and responsibilities. Technological advances, health care policies, and alterations in population distribution prompt changes in the health care needs of the nation.
Teaching/Learning Process
The teaching/learning process is a purposeful, goal-directed interactive process between the instructor, the student, and the environment. Positive learning from one situation to another can be facilitated when the situation is like the learner’s earlier experience. The student, with faculty support and guidance, pursues, integrates, and evaluates knowledge using a problem-solving process. We believe that students should be active participants in their own learning and should have opportunities for self-evaluation as well as for evaluation by faculty.
In their role as facilitator of student learning, the faculty endorses the principles of adult education. Learning occurs best when a problem, need or desire causes an increase in learner energy or motivation and is enhanced by the individual's” active involvement in the experience. The development of positive attitudes and eagerness to learn is facilitated by positive feedback which builds confidence and develops self-esteem. The faculty creates a learning environment which guides students toward assuming increased responsibility for identification and achievement of goals.
Nursing Theory
Professional Advancement Model (From Novice to Expert) By Patricia Sawyer Benner
The nursing curriculum at the Maine College of Health Professions is developed and structured around Benner’s Professional Advancement Model, also known as the Novice to Expert Theory. This model
outlines five progressive levels of nursing experience: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert.
These stages reflect a transformation in the learner’s performance and perspective. As students advance, they move from reliance on abstract principles to drawing on concrete, past experiences to guide clinical judgment. Their perception shifts from viewing situations as isolated components to recognizing them as integrated wholes. Learners evolve from detached observers to fully engaged participants, becoming active contributors within the clinical setting.
The program’s conceptual framework is based on the Nursing Process, which supports a systematic, student-centered approach to learning. Faculty regularly assess knowledge within each content area to identify gaps and reinforce critical concepts before introducing more advanced material.
Specifically, formative assessment is used throughout the curriculum to:
- Identify knowledge gaps
- Analyze performance trends
- Implement targeted teaching strategies
- Facilitate mastery of content through timely interventions
Following each intervention, faculty evaluate whether the desired learning outcomes have been achieved. This cyclical process continues as students progress through each level of Benner’s model.
At the conclusion of both the Practical Nursing and Associate Degree in Nursing programs, a summative evaluation is conducted using the HESI Exit Examination. This standardized assessment provides a comprehensive measure of student learning and evaluates readiness to enter professional nursing practice.
For students in the RN-BSN program, the final requirement is the completion of a clinical capstone project. This experience ensures that graduates have successfully built upon their foundational nursing knowledge and are prepared to advance their professional practice at the baccalaureate level.
Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework for the nursing programs is the nursing process. The nursing process is studied and utilized at the appropriate level and scope of practice for each nursing program offered at MCHP. The Nursing Process is a simple foundational framework that develops clinical reasoning skills. Reasoning skills lead to clinical judgment. After the cycle of clinical reasoning, Clinical Judgment identifies the outcome.
The Clinical Judgement Model is derived from the tenets of the conceptual framework. This model was created by the National Council State Board of Nursing (NCSBN) and will be utilized in all aspects of nursing education at MCHP. The information listed below is from the NCSBN.
Assessment
This phase consists of establishing a database by gathering objective and subjective client data and confirming the data. The nurse collects information relative to the client, verifies the data, and communicates the assessment data to relevant members of the health care team.
Recognize Cues
Identifying relevant data from different sources (the patient’s chart, medical history, vital signs, assessment data).
- What information is relevant/irrelevant?
- What information is most important?
- What is of immediate concern?
Analysis
This phase consists of the identification of client health care needs and/or problems based on an interpretation of assessment data. The nurse then formulates nursing diagnosis and communicates the analysis findings to relevant members of the health care team.
Analyze Cues
- Organizing and linking the recognized cues to the client’s clinical presentation.
- What are client conditions consistent with the cues?
- Are there cues that support or contraindicate a particular condition?
- Why is a particular cue or subset of cues of concern?
- What other information would help establish the significance of a cue or set of cues?
- Consider multiple things that could be happening.
- Narrowing down comes at the next step.
Planning
This phase consists of setting goals for meeting client needs and designing strategies to achieve expected client outcomes. The nurse determines the expected client outcomes, develops, and modifies the plan of care, formulates outcome criteria, and communicates the plan of care to relevant members of the health care team.
Prioritize Hypotheses
Evaluating and ranking hypotheses according to priority (urgency, likelihood, risk, difficulty, time, etc.)
- Which explanations are most/least likely?
- Which possible explanations are most serious?
- Item development should focus on ranking the potential issues and should use the phrases such as ‘most likely.’
Implementation
This phase consists of initiating and/or completing actions to accomplish the defined goals of care. The nurse organizes, manages, and provides care to accomplish expected client outcomes, and communicates nursing interventions to relevant members of the health care team.
Generate Solutions
Identifying expected outcomes and using hypotheses to define a set of interventions for the expected outcomes.
- What are the desirable outcomes?
- What interventions can achieve those outcomes?
- What should be avoided?
- Focus on goals and multiple potential interventions—not just the best one—that connect to those goals? Potential solutions could include collecting additional information.
Take Action
Implementing the solution(s) that addresses the highest priorities.
- Which intervention or combination of interventions is most appropriate?
- How should the interventions(s) be accomplished (performed, requested, administered, communicated, taught, documented, etc.).
- For “how” questions, ensure that specific elements from the scenario are what determines approach. Avoid memorized or “textbook” procedures. The item stem and/or the responses should include action verbs.
Evaluation
This phase consists of determining whether the client outcomes have been achieved and interventions have been successful. The nurse compares the actual outcomes with expected outcomes of care and communicates the client responses to interventions and/or teaching.
Evaluate Outcomes
Comparing observed outcomes against expected outcomes.
- What signs point to improving/declining/unchanged status?
- Were the interventions effective?
- Would other interventions have been more effective?
- Item development should focus on the efficacy of the intervention(s) from the previous items.
The knowledge related to content areas is regularly assessed. Content gaps and knowledge deficits are identified, and critical information is reinforced prior to moving forward to more complex ideas. More specifically, knowledge is formatively assessed throughout the program, gaps are identified and analyzed, strategies are used to address the problem areas, and interventions are made to facilitate learning. Once new strategies are implemented, there is an evaluation of whether the desired outcomes have been met. This process is repeated as students progress through the stages of learning.