Mission, Vision, and Values
Although rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite traditions of peacemaking, service, and community, the majority of EMU nursing students do not belong to the Mennonite Church USA. In fact, students enrolled across EMU nursing programs and beyond represent a wide range of faith traditions, including students who choose not to embrace a particular faith.
Regardless of your beliefs, you are welcome here!
Our values strongly inform the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) curriculum, offering a unique and nuanced approach to nursing and spirituality. You will find the program emphasizes:
- Servant leadership
- Innovative problem-solving
- Intercultural competency
EMU nursing programs are unique in their holistic view of nursing as a calling to service to others. We believe that nurses and patients form mutually-beneficial bonds, each providing gifts to the other. This relationship is echoed in the student-teacher dynamic, again, with one providing benefit to the other. We call this approach to nursing practice and higher education the Sacred Covenant Model of Nursing.
Mission
The EMU & GC DNP Partnership seeks to prepare nurse leaders to serve and lead at the highest level of nursing practice as informed, articulate, culturally sensitive, compassionate, and responsible professional nurses. Such nurse leaders reflect the values of stewardship, human flourishing, sacred covenant, and peacemaking as foundational to promoting change within the healthcare setting. The program educates students from the perspective of the Anabaptist heritage and belief structures of both schools.
Philosophy
The philosophy of the EMU & GC DNP Partnership is based on the commonly held holistic nursing philosophies of both Goshen College and EMU’s nursing programs. Integrated with this focus of viewing persons, health, and environment in a holistic manner, the partnership program has adopted the concepts of stewardship, human flourishing, sacred covenant, and peacemaking as core threads that are embodied in the developing character and work of the nurse.
Preparation of professional nurses at the DNP level requires the development of leadership capacities. The DNP graduate influences health care outcomes through directing care strategies for individuals and populations [Student Learning Outcome (SLO) #6], leading interprofessional teams toward improved healthcare systems, [SLO #2] providing leadership through engagement with health policy [SLO #5], and utilizing information for the transformation of healthcare [SLO #4]. As with other DNP programs, this practice-focused doctoral program is designed to prepare nurse leaders for the highest level of leadership [SLO #1] in practice that is innovative and evidence-based, reflecting translational science at its best [SLO #3]. The EMU & GC DNP Partnership graduate demonstrates leadership through an emphasis on population health promotion of vulnerable populations, formation of a covenantal relationship with clients and groups, and clinical prevention that is consistent with both EMU’s and GC’s mission of producing servant-leaders for the church and the world.
The Core Value Concepts:
Stewardship is understood as a call to living within the biblical themes of creation, redemption, and discipleship. Management of fiscal resources as well as care of creation are some of the prime practices within the concept of stewardship in an Anabaptist context.1
Human Flourishing is an emerging self-actualized well-being. The process of personal formation occurs within the context of the larger family and community. As students transform through the journey of one’s own human flourishing, they promote the flourishing of those in their care.2
Sacred Covenant is a philosophical approach to nursing that recognizes the interweaving of art, science, and spirit within the sacred ministry of health care and health promotion. The practice of nursing as sacred covenant recognizes the holy spaces within relationships between nurse and client, whether individual, family, or community. The commitments of these relationships recognize all persons as created by God with human dignity and worth, working within a dynamic interdependent system of care.3
Peacemaking is a way of life based in the ethics of Anabaptist values of doing justice, and practicing reconciliation.4 As nurses experience human connectedness, opportunities for building peace and justice emerge.5 Living as peacemakers is an expression of rightness and goodness in love as participants in a world often filled with uncertainty and fear.5
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1The Confession of Faith in an Anabaptist Perspective states “We believe that everything belongs to God, who calls us as the church to live as faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to us” (Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. Article 21. Christian Stewardship. Retrieved from http://mennoniteusa.org/confession-of-faith/christian-stewardship/). Additional information on stewardship retrieved from http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Stewardship&oldid=143454\>.
2See also National League for Nursing (NLN) Competencies for Graduates of Nursing Programs, retrieved from https://www.nln.org/docs/default-source/uploadedfiles/default-document-library/human-flourishing-final.pdf.
3O’Brien, M.E. (2017). Spirituality in Nursing(6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
4Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective article 22
5Dossey, B.M. & Keegan, L. (2016). Holistic nursing: A handbook for practice(7th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
