Odessa College

Nursing Programs Offered

ADN Program Details

The Associate Degree Nursing Program at Odessa College functions as an integral part of the College. The role, the mission, and the purpose of Odessa College serve as the basis for the Nursing Program. It is the mission of the nursing faculty to educate and prepare beginning professionals for practice in a multicultural community within a diverse and changing health care environment, advance the practice of nursing, and provide quality health care in a competent, caring manner.

The faculty believe that the client is the primary focus of nursing care. Associate degree nursing defines client as individual and family. Each individual is a unique, holistic being with intrinsic worth and dignity. Clients have biological, psychological, sociological, spiritual, and cultural needs which are dynamic and deeply influenced by changes in their internal and external environment.

We believe that the environment encompasses internal and external conditions, circumstances, and influences that interact with and affect the client. Environment consists of physical, psychological, biological, social, spiritual, and cultural components. Environment is dynamic, including values and beliefs, technological resources, economic diversity, educational opportunities, and human characteristics. It provides the context for the development of individuals, the identification of human needs, including those related to health, and the practice of nursing within various settings.

Faculty believe that health refers to the level of biological, psychological, social and spiritual functioning on a wellness-illness continuum, not merely the absence of disease. Health is influenced by developmental stages, social, economic, and cultural factors, personal choices about lifestyle and values, genetic and environmental factors, and generational patterns.

Faculty believe that nursing is a science and art based on knowledge derived from a body of nursing science, the physical and social sciences, and the humanities. In collaboration with the client, the role of the nurse is to assist in promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health. Nursing is focused on using a systematic decision making process to identify and respond to the needs of individual clients and families along the health-illness continuum. Nursing practice utilizes cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills in meeting the health needs of individuals. Nurses collaborate within a multidisciplinary health care team to meet the needs of individuals and families. The practice of nursing necessitates legal and ethical standards for professional excellence and encompasses lifelong learning and application of research. Nursing is a dynamic, interactive, and caring profession.

As a faculty, we believe that caring is an essential component of nursing, through which scientific nursing principles are used to meet the needs of the client and family with dignity and competency. Caring requires a personal, social, moral, and spiritual engagement of the nurse. Caring behaviors encompass showing concern, patience, compassion, and being a client advocate within the socio-cultural context of the client.

As nurse educators, we believe that nursing education is grounded in natural, social, behavioral, and humanistic sciences with an emphasis on communication, decision-making, ethical behavior, and caring for culturally diverse clients of all ages. Nursing education provides opportunities for students to acquire the knowledge, skills, therapeutic interventions, attitudes, and values of nursing, and then to transfer these abilities to clients in their care. The associate degree nurse is prepared as a beginning level practitioner who provides safe, effective, and ethical nursing care in a variety of health care settings. The faculty and college strive to provide an educational environment in which students are encouraged to learn and assimilate knowledge necessary for their practice. This is accomplished by combining the most effective traditional methods with latest teaching and technological innovations. Nurse educators expect students to be responsible, active learners. Graduates of the Nursing Program are prepared to practice safely, competently and adapt to a variety of health care settings.