COLLEGE OF Liberal Arts and Sciences

IN TODAY’S HEALTH CARE ENVIRONMENT, the professional nurse does more than comfort patients, carry out physician orders and assist others in health care. Professional nurses have advanced education preparing them to function independently in all health care settings. Nurses are cost-effective providers of prevention-focused, holistic health information and clinical care as well as primary care.

The professional nurse provides life support, insures a holistic approach to patient care, designs health care systems, supervises technical personnel, coordinates the many disciplines that provide services and advocates for the protection of patient rights in research and health care.

The advanced practice nurse provides highly specialized care and insures quality patient outcomes in one of four roles: clinical specialist, clinical nurse midwife, nurse anesthetist, and  nurse practitioner.

"We believe that nurses need more education, not less, to be the equal of other health professionals and to provide consistently excellent patient care." - SUSAN POSLUSNY, PHD, RN, Chair, Department of Nursing