Department of Baccalaureate Nursing

Department Chair: Tammie L. McCoy

Baccalaureate Nursing Faculty

Professors: Sheila V. Adams, Linda S. Cox, Tammie McCoy
Associate Professor: Deborah Miranda
Assistant Professors: Janice Giallourakis
Instructors: Hannah Bascomb, Jolyn Cooke, Mike Calvery, Sacha Dawkins, Gayle Elliott, Jessica Jeremiah, Russell King, Rosemary Marcele, Gladys Mooneyham, Bobbie Sue Pearson, Sally Pearson, Judy Raymond, Kimberly Schnurbusch, Cathy Smith

Purpose

The purpose of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program is to prepare a nurse generalist who is a leader in the promotion and maintenance of health and the improvement of health care outcomes across all settings at the local, state, national, and global levels. This purpose relates to the mission of the university by providing strong academic and leadership preparation to both women and men. Utilizing AACN’s The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice, and ANA Standards as guiding standards, the graduate is able to function as a provider of care, designer/manager/coordinator of care and a member of the profession. Graduates from the Baccalaureate nursing program are prepared with a liberal arts core which contributes to the acquisition of professional knowledge. In-depth preparation in the application of critical thinking skills, communication skills, knowledge acquisition, and standards of professional nursing practice enables the graduate to become a life-long learner..

Philosophy

The Bachelor of Science in Nursing faculty at Mississippi University for Women are committed to the learning process and to the professional development of students by providing programs of academic excellence. In accordance with the mission/purpose of MUW and the Department of Nursing, the faculty have developed a philosophy based on the concepts of person, environment, health, and nursing.

Person

Person constitutes a biopsychosocial, spiritual system constantly interacting with and adapting to the environment to achieve and maintain a homeodynamic state. Person is valuable, holistic and worthy of respect and concern. Person may be defined as an individual, family, community, or society and has varying capabilities for independently meeting universal needs. These capabilities are dynamically influenced by structures, gender, value systems, culture, and environments. Person is responsible for meeting health needs and has the right to make necessary decisions and to receive professional assistance in achieving health goals.

Environment

Environment includes all conditions, circumstances, and influences encountered by and affecting person. Environment may be intrapersonal, interpersonal, or extra-personal in nature. The intrapersonal environment is concerned with forces or interactive influences contained within the person. The interpersonal environment is concerned with forces or interactive influences between persons. The extra-personal environment is concerned with forces or interacting influences existing outside the person. Environment affects the continuous process of becoming, evolving, and changing. Person and environment are complementary systems so that the relationship between the two is reciprocal. Change in one system elicits response in the other.

Health

Health is defined by person in accordance with gender, culture, values, and capabilities. Health is a constantly changing state and exists on an illness to wellness continuum. Promotion and facilitation of optimal health is developed in collaboration with person, when possible, and is based on resources available to both the person and the nurse.

Nursing

Nursing, as a profession, combines concepts from the sciences and liberal arts into an applied science and a creative art which focuses on health needs. The science of nursing is an organized body of knowledge derived through scientific research and theory development and applied through critical thinking skills. The art of nursing is the creative and caring application of this knowledge. The scope of nursing practice deals with diverse populations and includes dependent, independent, and interdependent functioning of the nurse within primary, secondary, and tertiary settings. The faculty believes that the scope of nursing practice changes as health care continually evolves, thus the professional nurse must possess the core competencies and scientific knowledge to provide care across all health care settings. Ascribing to AACN’s The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice and ANA Standards, the professional nurse utilizes core knowledge skills to provide quality and safe patient care. .

Teaching/Learning

Learning is considered to be a complex lifelong developmental process involving the interaction of the person with the environment. The teacher and learner share in the challenge of creating an atmosphere which stimulates intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and individual creativity. The teaching-learning process is augmented when the learner actively participates in defining outcomes and assumes responsibility for achieving these outcomes. The teacher serves as a facilitator, counselor, and resource person.

Curriculum Outcomes

The Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program is designed to prepare a nurse generalist:

Synthesize knowledge from the humanities, social and natural sciences as a basis for nursing decisions.
Utilize organizational and systems leadership, quality improvement, and safety principles to promote high quality and safe patient care.
Integrate nursing research and evidence-based practice into professional nursing practice.
Utilize information management and patient care technology in professional nursing practice to improve patient care outcomes and create a safe care environment.
Apply knowledge of healthcare policies to professional nursing practice.
Collaborate with healthcare providers and consumers for the improvement of patient health outcomes.
Provide professional nursing care across the lifespan to culturally diverse individuals, families, and communities in a variety of health care settings.
Demonstrates responsibility and accountability for professional nursing values and role development.
Utilize research and theory based knowledge in the roles of provider of care, designer/manager/coordinator of care and member of a profession.

Admission Policy

See Undergraduate Admissions in this bulletin for information concerning admission.

Progression Policy - B.S.N. Program

Once a student is admitted to the Department of Baccalaureate Nursing:

A grade of C or above is required in each nursing course.
1. Nursing courses may be repeated only once, See “Readmission Policy”.
2. The student who fails to make a C on a second attempt of a failed nursing course or fails a subsequent nursing course is permanently excluded from the Generic Option of the Baccalaureate Nursing Program.
A grade of C or above is required in each non-nursing course prior to graduation.
A WF in any course is counted as a failure in that course.
For each nursing course with an accompanying clinical course, a grade of C or above is required in the theory course with a pass in the associated clinical course in order to progress. If this does not occur, both the theory and the clinical course must be retaken together. If only one course component (Theory or clinical) was failed it is considered as one failure; if both theory and clinical components are failed concurrently it is also considered as one failure.
Students may be dismissed from the program for unsafe practice, unethical conduct, or illegal conduct. In such cases a student will receive an automatic F in nursing courses affected by the actions.

Readmission Policy - B.S.N. Program

Students may be admitted to the Department of Baccalaureate Nursing only once after a nursing course failure. (Multiple course failures in one semester count as one failure.) Students who are ineligible to return to the Department of Baccalaureate Nursing due to two nursing course failures and who have become Registered Nurses may be considered for readmission in the RN/BSN Advanced Placement Option..
If the recommendation of the committee is to readmit the student. This readmission will be conditional on a space available basis according to the number of faculty and availability of clinical facilities. Students eligible for readmission will be ranked and chosen according to their overall GPA, total nursing GPA, and final grade in retention course.
A student who makes a D or lower in a nursing course is automatically excluded from the Department of Baccalaureate Nursing and must:
1. successfully complete a retention course with a grade of C or better.
2. petition in writing to the Department of Baccalaureate Nursing Readmission Committee following successful completion of the retention course.
The student must have obtained an MUW and an overall grade point average of 2.5 prior to readmission.
Students will be readmitted under requirements of the current bulletin.
Students who have been dismissed for unsafe practice, unethical conduct, or illegal conduct will not be eligible for readmission.

Application to Junior Level

The number of students admitted to the nursing program depends upon the available resources. Any student who expects to enroll in the generic nursing option must complete an application for the nursing program. This application will normally be completed during the fall semester of the Sophomore year (November). Please see “Undergraduate Admission ” in this bulletin for additional information on admission to the junior level. Admission decisions for the generic option are made in January and all required documents must be in the BSN program office by 5 pm on January 20th of each year.

General Degree Requirements

A minimum of 128 semester hours earned.
Satisfaction of University core with a C or better (62 hours).
Satisfaction of Nursing courses with a C or better (66 hours).
Transfer students of regionally accredited community/junior colleges that transfer to MUW will be required to earn at least 50% of the semester hours required for a specific degree at a senior institution (including 25% of the semester hours at MUW) before becoming eligible for any degree.

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