The philosophy of the faculty at the School of Nursing is a statement of the beliefs and values they hold about the discipline and profession of nursing as well as nursing education. The conceptual framework and the goals of the undergraduate and graduate programs are built upon this philosophy.

Nursing is both a practice discipline and a profession. Comprising the discipline is a unique body of knowledge that is integral to nursing practice, nursing education, and nursing administration. The body of knowledge is continuously developed and refined as an outcome of scientific, historical, philosophical, and ethical inquiry and clinical evaluation. Nursing knowledge is generated about health through behaviors of persons across the life span. Clinical evaluation advances nursing knowledge through the testing and validation of interventions that are used in nursing practice, nursing education, and nursing administration. The metaparadigm concepts of person, environment, health, and nursing form the foundation upon which inquiry and the profession are based.

Professional nurses use knowledge developed by the discipline to promote optimal health in people and to achieve professional goals. Nursing is an essential component of the health care delivery system and includes the promotion of wellness, the detection of alterations in health and the provision of care for those with illness, disease, or dysfunction. Professional nursing is characterized by inquiry, caring, and practice. Nurses are professionally, ethically, and legally accountable for the care they provide, and their practice includes independent and interdependent functions.

Professional nursing education is built upon a foundation of liberal arts, humanities, and the sciences, and it provides opportunities for learners to attain competencies required to practice professional nursing at differentiated levels. Baccalaureate education prepares nurses to function as generalists, while education at the master's level prepares nurses as advanced practitioners in a specialty area. Mature learners identify the need to know and assume responsibility for their own learning. Effective teachers establish an inviting learning environment that promotes collaboration among themselves and their learners for achievement of educational goals. At the doctoral level, nurses are prepared as scientists to practice in academia and industry.