We believe that human beings are unique individuals, possessed of dignity and worth, and motivated toward meeting basic human needs. These individuals are social beings who exist in interrelationships with other persons within dynamic environments. They have the freedom to make decisions and to assume responsibility for their choices.

We believe that health is the achievement of a balance in physical, mental, emotional, and social responses to internal and external stimuli or stressors.

Human responses are clustered into patterns which are diverse as well as predictable and are influenced by the individual's life experiences.  Nursing is a profession involving "the diagnosis and treatment of human responses to potential and actual health problems", (A.N.A. 1980).  The goal of nursing is to facilitate health promotion and disease prevention.  This is accomplished through caring interpersonal interactions which support the individual's response.

Nursing knowledge and skills are synthesized from the physical and behavioral sciences.  The nursing process provides the structure and critical thinking to incorporate scientifically based knowledge into practice.

The Sinclair Nursing Faculty regards the Associate Degree as an appropriate level of entry into Registered Nursing practice and an integral part of the discipline of nursing.   The faculty believes that Associate Degree Nursing focuses on care of persons with potential and/or actual health problems with the intent of restoring/maintaining health, preventing illness, and promoting wellness.

Associate Degree Nursing practice is implemented through the roles of provider of care (which includes patient teacher and communicator), manager of patient care, and member of the profession (NLN, 1992).  The Associate Degree Nurse utilizes strong medical-surgical nursing knowledge as a basis for practice in a variety of health care settings which are driven by available resources and structured by standards of care, critical pathways, and plans of care inherent in the health care delivery systems.

The Associate Degree Nurse maintains accountability for individual practice and for the aspects of care delegated to peers, licensed practical nurses and other unlicensed assistive personnel.  The A.D.N. practices with nurses from other levels of educational preparation, culminating in collaborative, interdependent, and complementary nursing care.  The A.D.N. supports the freedom of colleagues to make decisions while holding each accountable for the outcomes.

Nursing education is a process by which the learner is prepared to utilize a common core of nursing knowledge and skills in order to assume the accountability for care within the community.  The nurse educator's role is to:

     1. foster a learning environment through small group format.

     2. serve as a role model through demonstration of professional conduct.

     3. acknowledge the student as a unique individual with a readiness and ability
         to learn.

     4. stimulate the student to pursue life-long learning.

The faculty perceive learning as an active and continuous process proceeding from the known to the unknown.  Learning is facilitated when the student has the opportunity to test ideas related to nursing knowledge and apply the principles of that knowledge in a variety of situations.  The community college setting provides the general education component which compliments nursing courses and provides the opportunity for personal enrichment. 

A component of the teaching/learning process is the assessment of outcomes, a shared student-faculty responsibility. Assessment, like learning takes place in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains.  It is the measurement of the degree to which criteria have been met plus a judgment about the quality of student performance, thus allowing evaluation of program effectiveness as well as individual student achievement.  The value of assessment is found in its use to improve teaching/learning, curriculum, and the nursing program.