To help guide the WVU School of Nursing forward in teaching, learning, scholarship, practice and service, a faculty task force recently updated the school’s Mission, Vision and Values statements. The updated statements are as follows:
Our Mission
The mission of the WVU School of Nursing is to improve the health of West Virginians, as well as our regional and global communities, through the delivery of excellent student-centered programs and evidence-based teaching, scholarship, and service.
Our Vision
The WVU School of Nursing envisions improving the quality of life across all populations by addressing the social determinants of health through nurse-led policy, education, research, service, and practice initiatives.
Our Values
The WVU School of Nursing is an organization that values integrity, excellence, compassion, respect, engagement, and inclusivity. We commit to addressing the unique needs of the students and populations we serve and to creating an environment where individuality is encouraged, ethics are prioritized, and learning, discovery, and innovation can flourish.
“Our updated Mission, Vision and Values truly reflect who we are as the WVU School of Nursing,” said Dr. Tara Hulsey, Dean and E. Jane Martin Endowed Professor. “These statements, carefully crafted and revised by our faculty task force, will serve as guiding principles to steer us and remind us of what is most important.”
Associate Dean of Curriculum Dr. Stacy Huber said the reason for the update was two-fold.
First, the statements must be reviewed and revised periodically to ensure alignment with relevant professional nursing standards and guidelines for the preparation of nurses. This is a requirement of WVU School of Nursing’s accrediting body, the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).
Second, the school is preparing for a total curriculum revision of all programs. In September 2023, the WVU School of Nursing Total Faculty Committee adopted the 2021 American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education as its professional nursing standards. These Core Competencies are guiding a total curriculum revision of all programs.
“It was essential to revise our current statements as a beginning step in the curriculum revision process to assure the Mission, Vision, and Value statements are current, relevant, reflective of the WVU Mission, Vision, and Values, and serve as overall guiding framework for curriculum revision,” Huber said.
Dr. Beth Minchau, Chair of the Total Faculty Committee, was charged with leading the initiative by forming a task force. The taskforce, represented by 11 active members representing four campus locations and multiple academic and clinical specialties, reviewed necessary documents, drafted statements, reviewed feedback provided via Qualtrics surveys, and finaled the 2024 Mission, Vision, and Value statements.
“As we prepare to re-create and improve our curriculum, it is important that we have a strong foundation to base it on,” Minchau shared. “That foundation should be reflective of what is most important to us. There is no better way to create a great pathway for improvement than to base it on our long-term goals, our current priorities, our future outlook, and the things we hold dearest and most important to us as academics and caregivers.”
During the process, feedback was collected from a wide range of stakeholders, including faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, and community members. The surveys received more than 150 responses, with nearly half of the responses coming from alumni. After reviewing feedback in early 2024, Minchau and the task force shared a second draft with faculty and staff in March, and the final version was adopted in April. Minchau shared her gratitude for her hard-working team members throughout the process.
“As we continue to increase our enrollment, improve the opportunities for nurses at all levels to advance their education, and begin to redesign a state-of-the-art curriculum, it will be paramount that we remain focused on why we do what we do,” Minchau said. “In order to be able to do that effectively and successfully, we have to identify and follow a pathway that truly prioritizes our goals and our roles.”
Overall, the process began in September 2023 and concluded in April 2024. Like Minchau, Huber said she feels the new Mission, Vision, and Value statements represent their desire as a school to meet the needs of the state as well as their global partners.
“We have included words such as inclusivity, integrity, social determinates of heath, and individuality,” Huber said. “However, these are not ‘just words,’ but a representation of our desire to care for students, patients, our families, and populations.”
Huber describes these statements as the “north star” for guiding the WVU School of Nursing in teaching, learning, scholarship, practice and service.
“We work to live the mission, plan for the vision and hold close our values in all that we do,” Huber said. “I would like to sincerely thank the faculty for their contributions to this endeavor. Many, many thanks to the task-force members who spent countless hours reading, writing, word smithing, and providing their thoughts and ideas. Finally, a huge thank you to Dr. Beth Minchau for leading this initiative!”
To learn more about the work happening at the WVU School of Nursing, visit nursing.wvu.edu.
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MEDIA CONTACT: Wendy Holdren
Director of Communications and Marketing
WVU School of Nursing
304-581-1772; wendy.holdren@hsc.wvu.edu