The nursing faculty at OPSU have developed a program designed especially for the distance learner and part-time student.  Our philosophy of caring and focus on the adult learner has lead us to develop a unique program in which the student is not required to come to campus for their nursing courses.  All nursing courses are offered asynchronously via the Internet.

The BSN curriculum provides an academic program leading to the baccalaureate degree that builds on the knowledge and skills of the Associate or Diploma prepared Registered Nurse and is designed for the Registered Nurse whose career goals will be enhanced through further undergraduate study.  The program is designed to support educational mobility and to strengthen community health and leadership abilities of nurses who already have a foundation in the profession.

The Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program at Oklahoma Panhandle State University serves the public interest by educating Registered Nurses for entry into professional nursing practice in the Oklahoma Panhandle and surrounding areas. The program is designed to provide professional knowledge and skills to the working Registered Nurse, to support educational mobility and to strengthen community health and leadership abilities of nurses who already have a foundation in the profession, particularly in rural communities. These educational experiences are designed to prepare professional nurses for practice today and well into the 21st Century.

Philosophy: The nursing faculty believe that the development of caring cognizance and displays of caring are integral to the experience of nursing. The faculty consider this all-encompassing concern for the individuality of others to be a fundamental quality of caring. This includes students and faculty, as well as clients. Qualities of students as learner-ways-of-being and faculty as teacher-ways-of-being are viewed as central to the shared process of caring and integral to the learning process. These qualities involve the notions of support, empowerment, growth, and hope. Teaching-learning encounters are viewed as ongoing and interactive caring transactions. The faculty believe that these mutually coexistent areas of caring enable learning and growth among students and faculty and encourage expressions of trust, sharing, respect, and learning from each other.

The faculty support a framework for multiple ways of knowing nursing and caring. These include empirics (the science of nursing), esthetics (the art of nursing), ethics (moral knowledge), personal knowledge (knowledge gained by life experience), and critical decision making (critical thinking).

The theoretical framework of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program uses elements of Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring . This theory emphasizes transpersonal caring-healing, focusing on the correlation between health, illness and human behavior. Nurses provide intentional caring which will bring both healing and wholeness to the person being cared for as well as the person providing the care.

Caring theory requires nurses to base the outcome of nursing activity on goals that focus on the promotion of health, restoration of health and prevention of illness through providing care that focuses on protection, dignity, humanity, wholeness and inner harmony. Client needs are met through transpersonal caring practices. Nurses attempt to discover deeper sources of inner healing that are characterized in predominantly spiritual terms rather than primarily in prevention and/or elimination of disease. This theory does not ignore conventional medical or nursing practices but is complimentary to those practices in the care of the client. These caring practices allow the nurses to identify and relate to clients by seeing themselves in another's dilemma. Using this theory, nurses view both clients and themselves as part of the comprehensive, caring process.

Major conceptual elements of the theory that guide student/faculty activities include the original carative factors, clinical carita processes, transpersonal caring relationships, and caring moments/caring occasions. These human caring concepts are central to the OPSU nursing program and are used as a guide for student/client and student/faculty activities and interactions.

Person A person is a uniquely human individual connected with others and the environment through a caring relationship. A person may live and function as an individual or within groups, such as family, community and society. It is natural for the human to be caring. To be human is to be free to choose values, aspirations, and desires which give meaning to life and which affect well-being. Caring is the central value in the practice of nursing.

Well-being (Health) Well-being is the creation and living of life. Health is considered a dynamic process involving unity and harmony within the individual person as a whole (mind, body, soul, and spirit). Harmony results when the individual experiences his/her real self. The more one experiences one's real self, the more harmony that results, and harmony is associated with health. The nurse must be concerned not only with harmony, but also with disharmony and how it develops. Through the transpersonal caring process, the nurse is able to help the client recognize both harmony and disharmony within the self and how they develop. Health encompasses the entire nature of the individual; the physical, social, esthetic, and moral realms. The well-being of persons, families, groups, communities, and societies are fostered through caring relationships and interrelationships with the environment.

Nursing Nursing is both a discipline of knowledge and a field of professional practice. The goal of nursing is to promote well-being through the act of caring. The practice of nursing requires the integration of knowing and caring which is unique in nursing.

Environment Each person lives within an ever-changing environment. Environment refers to all the external forces influencing an individual. This includes not only the physical surroundings but also the social and cultural attitudes, which profoundly shape human experience. The environment in which a person functions influences how that person perceives and responds in a given situation.

Learning Environment Beliefs about learning and environments that foster learning are derived from an understanding of person, the nature of nursing and nursing knowledge, and the mission of the University. Learning involves the creation of understanding and appreciation of knowing within a context of value and meaning. A supportive environment for learning is a caring environment. A caring environment is one in which all aspects of the human person are respected, nurtured, and celebrated.

Education Education involves all aspects of caring for the person (student, faculty, practitioners). Undergraduate education in nursing for the registered nurse builds on previously learned information and prepares the student as a beginning professional practitioner. The registered nurse's way of knowing in completing the baccalaureate degree is augmented by caring collegial relationships with faculty and other students. Baccalaureate education builds upon the basic nursing education of the Registered Nurse and assists the individual nurse to develop the knowledge to assume a broader professional role and practice of nursing. The baccalaureate prepared nurse uses critical clinical decision making to provide nursing care for individuals and groups of clients.

The goals of the Oklahoma Panhandle State University bachelor degree program in nursing are to:

Admission Requirements

All Nursing Courses are offered on the Internet.

BSN Degree Requirements

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The Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program at Oklahoma Panhandle State University is accredited by: The National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC) 61 Broadway - 33rd Floor New York City, NY  10006 800.669.1656 ext. 153 www.nlnac.org