Question Description

Foundations of Graduate Study

Week 1 Discussion

COLLAPSE

****APA format**** 500 words****Double spaced***References of information used

Mission, Vision, and Personal Goals

Are you familiar with Walden University’s vision and mission? Were they a factor in selecting this University? How do they relate to your professional and academic goals of becoming a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner? Does it matter if there is a tight or loose relationship or one at all? This week’s Discussion asks you to think about how the Walden mission and vision and the School of Nursing (SON) mission and vision apply to your professional and academic goals. Is there a match? How does Walden’s mission and vision relate to your becoming a scholar-practitioner committed to social change?

To prepare:

• Review the Walden and SON mission and vision statements, Walden’s goals and University Outcomes, and the MSN Program Learning Outcomes presented in this week’s Learning Resources.
• Reflect on your professional and academic goals as they relate to your program/specialization.
• Consider how the information in the documents, identified above, fit with your own goals and to your becoming a scholar-practitioner.
• Think about how you will incorporate your commitment to social change into your professional and academic goals, particularly as it relates to the area(s) of interest represented by your program/specialization.

By Day 3

Post a description of one or more significant ways in which Walden’s and the School of Nursing’s perspectives (i.e., vision, mission, social change message, and outcomes) relate to your professional and academic goals and to your becoming a scholar-practitioner. Include how you plan to incorporate social change into your professional and academic goals.

Support your Discussion assignment with specific resources used in its preparation using APA formatting. You are asked to provide a reference for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this course.

Walden University’s Vision, Mission, and Goals

Return to:IntroductionVisionWalden University envisions a distinctively different 21st-century learning community where knowledge is judged worthy to the degree that it can be applied by its graduates to the immediate solutions of critical societal challenges, thereby advancing the greater global good.MissionWalden University provides a diverse community of career professionals with the opportunity to transform themselves as scholar-practitioners so that they can effect positive social change.GoalsTo provide multicontextual educational opportunities for career learners.To provide innovative, learner-centered educational programs that recognize and incorporate the knowledge, skills, and abilities students bring into their academic programs.To provide its programs through diverse process-learning approaches, all resulting in outcomes of quality and integrity.To provide an inquiry/action model of education that fosters research, discovery, and critical thinking and that results in professional excellence.To produce graduates who are scholarly, reflective practitioners and agents of positive social change.Social ChangeWalden University defines positive social change as a deliberate process of creating and applying ideas, strategies, and actions to promote the worth, dignity, and development of individuals, communities, organizations, institutions, cultures, and societies. Positive social change results in the improvement of human and social conditions.This definition of positive social change provides an intellectually comprehensive and socially constructive foundation for the programs, research, professional activities, and products created by the Walden academic community.In addition, Walden supports positive social change through the development of principled, knowledgeable, and ethical scholar-practitioners, who are and will become civic and professional role models by advancing the betterment of society.University OutcomesWalden University strives to produce graduates with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to:1. Facilitate positive social change where they work, in their communities, and in society.2. Use their knowledge to positively impact their profession, communities, and society.3. Demonstrate a commitment to lifelong learning.4. Apply their learning to specific problems and challenges in their workplace and professional settings.5. Demonstrate information literacy.* *Information literacy is defined as the ability to know when there is a need for information, and being able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand.6. Demonstrate an understanding of the methods of inquiry used in their professional or academic field.7. Practice legal and ethical integrity in their professional work.8. Effectively communicate their ideas and the rationale behind them to others.9. Support diversity and multiculturalism within their profession, communities, and society.University ValuesQuality • Integrity • Student-CenterednessValuesThree values—quality, integrity, and student-centeredness—are the core of the university and the touchstones for action at all levels of the organization. They demand high standards of excellence, uncompromising openness and honesty, and primary attention to the progress of our students. These values and principles give Walden University its unique identity and underpin the Walden University mission.QualityWalden University believes that quality and integrity are the cornerstones of all academic processes.Walden University believes in innovation and flexibility in the conception and delivery of its educational programs, and that there are many different academic routes to achieve quality and integrity.Integrity Walden University believes that education and social change are fundamental to the provision and maintenance of democratic ideals and principles, especially that of the common good.Walden University believes that its learners effect positive social change when they behave as reflective or scholarly practitioners.Walden University believes that the inquiry/action model fosters critical thinking and underpins research and discovery for reflective practitioners (bachelor’s and master’s students) and scholar-practitioners (doctoral students). This model provides the framework for teaching, learning, and assessment.Student-CenterednessWalden University believes that all adult learners should have innovative educational access, especially those who are without opportunity in other venues.Walden University believes that academic programs must be learner-centered, incorporating learners’ prior knowledge and allowing them to focus their academic work on their needs and interests.

School of Nursing

School of Nursing Vision and GoalsSchool of Nursing

Our School of Nursing offers academically rigorous and culturally relevant programs that prepare you to improve the quality of patients’ lives, communities, and healthcare institutions.

Designed to provide you with a lifelong learning path for every stage of your career, the School of Nursing offers a full suite of online undergraduate and graduate nursing programs, certificates, multiple degree paths, and specializations ranging from nursing education to nurse practitioner.

All of our courses are developed in collaboration with healthcare industry experts and led by doctoral-level faculty, connecting you with the best practices in the field, expert instruction, and professional mentorship. Our programs also feature fieldwork experience, which provides you with an opportunity to apply your learning in a practice environment.

Our Vision

The School of Nursing envisions recognition as a preeminent 21st-century school of nursing in which the contributions of nursing, health, and related sciences will transform the provision of nursing services along the continuum of care and across the human life span to meet the needs of individuals and local and global communities.

Our Mission

The School of Nursing provides academically rigorous and culturally and contextually relevant educational programs, based in the scholar-practitioner model, for a diverse array of nursing professionals seeking enhancement of critical thinking skills, abilities to select and implement evidence-based practices, and core and specialty nursing knowledge in order to transform society.

Realize your potential to make a lasting difference in nursing. In the Walden University School of Nursing, you’ll advance your career on your own terms. Choose from our:

• CCNE-accredited bachelors program for registered nurses (BSN)
• CCNE-accredited Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)
• CCNE-accredited Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
• Ph.D. in Nursing
• Post-master’s certificate in nursing for access to the most current thinking and best practices.