Nursing School Mission and Goals

The Carol and Odis Peavy School of Nursing will be nationally recognized as an educational community that is an exemplar in the formation of nurses for holistic healing ministries in the 21st century healthcare environment.

Building on the mission of the University of St. Thomas and its Founders, the Basilian Fathers, and nourished by the historic traditions of Catholic nursing education and service, the Carol and Odis Peavy School of Nursing will educate nurses intellectually, morally, and spiritually in the art and science of nursing as a compassionate healing ministry.

UST’s deep conviction about the nature of nursing as a healing ministry shapes the philosophy of the Carol and Odis Peavy School of Nursing and serves as the standard measuring, intent and outcomes of all the school’s endeavors. With this undergirding, we frame and describe the essential elements of the healing ministry we pursue and make manifest:
The concepts of person, nursing health and environments were defined as follows for the UST nurse and are further discussed in Standard III in the conceptual framework presentation.

• For the UST Nurse, Person is the ineffable expression of “God among us” that is the unique, complex multidimensional mystery of each human. Both nurse and patient, as persons, bring to healing encounters their self-awareness, intentionality and consciousness; these human capacities create the conditions for healing.
• For the UST Nurse, Nursing is a professional discipline and practice, both an art and a science, manifest as a healing ministry expressing the presence of God. Nurses bring to their relationships with persons a conscious, intentional and relational presence. Using their knowledge and skill, nurses express their therapeutic capacity through their unique spiritual calling and commitment, guiding others to a desired wholeness.
• For the UST Nurse, Health is optimal wholeness of persons achieved through the full expression of individual and communal healing practices made possible through nursing, by nurses. Health is a multidimensional state of being that encompasses body, mind and spirit for the nurse and the patient in their shared encounters focused on care.
• For the UST Nurse, Environment is the totality of all forces and factors that shape the nurse to patient encounters that make healing possible. Each encounter offers an unrepeatable moment, as environment is a constant state of change. Nurses enter the care environment in order to create the conditions and relationships necessary for healing.

All members of the UST/SON community, in embracing these fundamental understandings of the essential elements of nursing, create and participate in education, scholarship, service and care initiatives that make the healing presence of God manifest. They are guided by the human capacities for compassion, justice, tolerance, reflection, creativity, and moral choice.

• Create a program based on a holistic nursing framework that contributes to the mission of UST as a Catholic liberal arts university dedicated to the education of leaders of faith and character.
• Prepare highly qualified graduates for careers in nursing.
• Enhance the diversity of the nursing workforce in Houston, Texas and the nation with graduates who are prepared to practice nursing as a professional discipline and a healing ministry.

The UST core curriculum goals reflect the knowledge, skills and attitudes associated with a classical liberal arts education and are highly congruent with the standards for professional nursing education articulated in the AACN Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice (2008), the Texas Board of Nursing Differentiated Essential Competencies (2010) and the Institute of Medicine Core Competencies (2005). The UTS BSN Program Goals are to prepare graduates to achieve entry-level competency for the transition into professional nursing practice as a provider of safe, high quality patient-centered care, an effective member of the health care team and member of the nursing profession whose practice reflects an understanding of nursing as a healing ministry. In order to meet those program goals, students are expected to meet the following learning outcomes upon graduation.