We believe that Nursing Practice integrates professional standards, education, research and staff empowerment, which creates excellence in patient care.

Nurses individually and collectively are committed to patients* through the following contributions to patient care:

Coordination:	Assures an individualized multidisciplinary plan of care is implemented.
Care:	Provides direct care to patients, which meets their physiological and psychosocial needs.
Education:	Assures that patients know about their disease process, established treatment plans and strategies to restore, maintain and promote health.
Manager:	Creates a patient care delivery system that maximizes human and material resources to provide quality, cost-effective care to patients.
Advocacy:	Places the patient as the focal point of care, supports patient participation in decision making, and encourages patients to exercise their rights and responsibilities.
Research:	Investigates innovative approaches to nursing and patient care. Implements evidence-based practices to improve the quality of patient care.
Collaboration:	Forms a collaborative relationship with physicians and other key members of the patient care team.

*Patients includes patient, families, significant others and communities.

Nursing involves practices that are nurturative, generative or protective in nature--practices developed to meet the health needs of individuals as integrated persons rather than as biological systems.

We Believe:

	Nurses are patient advocates. Patients come first.
	Nursing makes a difference in the lives of our patients.
	Nursing is an applied intuitive art based upon a scientific foundation.
	Nurses recognize the need to treat everyone with dignity and respect.
	Nurses recognize the need for effectively utilizing resources.
	The unique needs of patients are met with specialized clinical expertise and knowledge.
	Patients and families are participants in the development of the plan of care.
	All patients have the right to be treated as individuals and as a member of a family unit.