¶ … worked to develop a mission statement, as well as identifying a program philosophy for a nursing program that would allow older adults who are already nurses to move from RN to BSN. Many nurses are doing this today in order to remain relevant in the field, and also to move forward into other jobs within their current healthcare organizations or enhance the staff positions they currently hold (Longe, 2013). The mission statement is an important part of a nursing program. The statement that was developed by the author is: "The Balsdon School of Nursing (TBSN) will transpire as a leader in educating professional registered nurses to meet the health care needs of Central Wisconsin. The faculty strives to encourage student success through quality in teaching, scholarship, practice, and service." After the mission statement had been fully developed it was able to be used as a guide in developing a teaching philosophy. That philosophy will be used to address how knowledge is created and expanded and how learning can be facilitated through teaching styles. Since each teaching style transmits knowledge from faculty to students differently, it is very important to find and utilize the right styles so students can learn as much as possible. The beliefs and thoughts on various teaching styles and the transfer of knowledge all needs to be considered in order to address this successfully. When a faculty member transmits knowledge, he or she does so through the beliefs held, as those beliefs are translated into the actions taken within the academic environment. The currently developed philosophy is important to discuss here, and is as follows:

The Balsdon School of Nursing (TBSN) is designed to offer learner-centered nursing programs that are both innovative and outstanding, and that involve students in curricula that is progressively complex. This prepares them for the undertaking of important roles within complex healthcare settings that are interdisciplinary and diverse. Additionally, these students are then exposed to different environments which can provide them with the knowledge and information they will need in a healthcare setting that continues to change and develop. The faculty's commitment is designed to nurture an environment that is open, and in which students are able to feel engaged in their work and surroundings.

With evidence-based practice, these students can become humanizing, caring, compassionate individuals and move into healthcare systems that are technologically focused and outcome-oriented (Fitzpatrick & Kazer, 2011). Students' lives are transformed through the promotion of patterns of life-long learning. This continuous learning helps students disseminate and apply the results of scholarly work, so they are better able to meet their career goals and properly care for patients at every level. The mission of TBSN is an important one, and designed to help any student focused on going from RN to BSN, with a particular focus on older nurses who wish to add to their abilities in their current career.

According to Billings & Halstead (2012), the mission of a school must address the knowledge and technological explosion, critical thinking and problem solving, multiculturalism, and communication in response to current and modern changes occurring in today's world. Research has also demonstrated that student enrollment is influenced by the degree of affinity with the mission statement of the school (David, Ruhe, Lee, & Rajadhyaksha, 2007). This mission statement, therefore, defines the institution's purpose and its responsibility to students, faculty, and the community. By ensuring that the mission statement and vision of the school is a strong one, it is more likely that students will get attracted to the school, because they have a better understanding of what they will receive when it comes to the education they need in their nursing career.

As a part of this assignment, the author will introduce here a selection of organizing framework that meshes with the philosophy, vision, and mission addressed above. This framework...

They state that the purpose behind the construction of an organizing framework is to effectively provide a design for faculty and students to follow. This design should be clear, and should provide students with information about the knowledge that is important in current nursing practice (Billings & Halstead, 2012). Without making the effort to delineate this information, students and faculty members can fall behind in what they understand to be accurate when it comes to current values and guidelines for evidence-based practice in the nursing profession.
TBSN Organizing Framework

At TBSN, the organizing framework will be based on the Systems Model created by Betty Neuman. This model and nursing theory focuses on an approach that is very open and holistic, and that defines the entire person instead of just the patient's illness (Memmott, et al., 2000). Often, those in the medical community become too focused on the illness the person has, and because of that they fail to see the patient as an entire being. Neuman attempted to move away from that, and this is the goal of teaching at TBSN -- to ensure that nurses see the entire patient, and not just what might be wrong with him or her. This can lead to learning much more about the patient, which is more likely to lend itself to a discovery of other conditions and issues that might be contributing to the original problem.

There are several concepts that need to be addressed here as they were presented within Neuman's System Model. For example, there are several concepts in the model (client/person, environment, nursing, and health), along with several dimensions within some of the concepts (Memmott, et al., 2000). Health, as it is presented in Neuman's theory, is focused on the whole patient, and the parts and subparts all remaining in harmony (Memmott, et al., 2000). If the person in question does not have that harmony, he or she does not have the proper and appropriate level of health. There is a continuum that moves from health to illness, and where the person falls on that continuum is a measure of how healthy he or she is. Because there are many factors that can contribute to health or illness, there are other concepts that have to be considered, such as a person's environment.

The environment is the person's surroundings, and this environment may change from day-to-day or even from hour to hour. Some people create their own environments as much as possible, and others simply move through the environments that are created by others (Memmott, et al., 2000). The nurse responds to the clients who are experiencing problems in their environment (such as stressors and disease) that lead to difficulties with the person and with that person's health (Memmott, et al., 2000). By carefully considering all of the issues that are faced and how they can be tied to one another, the Neuman Systems Model is an excellent starting point for any nursing education. The Model does not only focus on the illness or disease, but on the person as a whole, the environment in which that person finds himself or herself, and the nurses who will care for that person in an effort to restore health to the body and address factors in the environment.

Conclusion

When it comes to an organizing framework, the goal is to indicate the development of a well-rounded curriculum for nursing (Fitzpatrick & Kazer, 2011; Longe, 2013). This is essential for any academic institution that plans to teach nurses how to do their jobs effectively and that plans to help nurses make the transition from RN to BSN with success. For TBSN, the framework designed provides effective guidance so that students and faculty will clearly understand what is valuable when it comes to current nursing practice. Too many schools today are ignoring…