Our holistic approach to nursing education and patient care
- Nursing is a Heart, Head, and Hands career. Students bring their heart and desire to improve the human condition; the faculty and staff in the Nese College of Nursing work together with students to develop the critical thinking skills (head), clinical expertise (hands), and professionalism that recruiters have come to expect from our graduates
- Clinical is graded Pass/Fail and is growth-focused. Students must pass clinical in order to pass the corresponding nursing course, no matter how high their lecture grade is. Heart, head, hands.
- Students participate in debriefing sessions after each simulation to process the experience and review what went well versus what they might do differently in the future to achieve better patient outcomes
- Student nurses work in teams and take turns leading or contributing in other important ways; healthcare is a team sport!
- Simulated clinical experiences allow students to practice in a safe, supportive, confidence-building environment. Research supports simulation as an excellent teaching tool, as it removes the fear factor from the learning process
- Clinical simulation faculty observe and control conditions through the two-way mirror, work closely with students in the lab, and/or record simulation sessions to debrief as a teaching tool
- Penn State Nursing takes a holistic approach to patient care. A patient is more than a diagnosis! Student nurses are taught to effectively manage patients’ medical and physical conditions while also supporting their social, intellectual and emotional needs
- Burnout is a healthcare crisis! We want our students to have long, rewarding careers, so we also talk with our students about practicing holistic self-care and modeling healthy behavior
