Our Guiding Principles
Context for the work: Shared Vision with Commitment to Excellence and Innovation, in our effort to serve and promote the Health of All Oregonians
Guiding Principles and Norms for OCNE Coordinating Council, Faculty, and Staff
The context for all our work communicates our commitment to excellence, innovation, and a shared vision that will serve the health of all Oregonians. We believe that to achieve excellence we focus on outcome, exhibit excitement about student and peer progress, and foster learner focused nursing education to include scholarship in nursing and in education. The context of our work honors risk taking and creates opportunities to celebrate our relationships and achievement along the journey. We embrace innovation by honoring it whenever and wherever it happens. We are committed to displaying our pride and commitment to OCNE and also strive to acknowledge and promote excellence and innovations for all nursing programs in the state. We believe Oregon’s nursing community must be pivotal in the provision of health care for all Oregonians. This involves broadening the focus of nursing education beyond the acute hospital environment to include health promotion, acute and chronic care, and end of life care in the various settings where such care occurs. We are committed to developing, clarifying and achieving competencies and contributing to the evolution and integration of evidence based practice in all practice environments and in education. Our shared vision is to elucidate what the best nurse in the 21st century looks like and assure that student learning and patient care are kept to the highest standards to achieve best patient care outcomes.
Guiding Principles
Inclusiveness is a founding principle for the work of OCNE. The commitment to inclusiveness provides a rich climate for feedback to and from others. We work to honor the contribution each member of our community makes and avoid selfish and self serving behavior. We are committed to search out, seek, solicit, and listen intently. We value varying perspectives and incorporate new ideas. We acknowledge and create a friendly space for the doubting process. It is our belief that we should respond to criticism and remember that often anger and discomfort related to change are the result of comfort with the past and may be a necessary phase in transformation. We acknowledge and honor the contributions and distinction that associate partner nursing education programs offer. We are committed to welcoming others into full participation in OCNE and will work in partnership to facilitate the integration of new partners.
We believe that our goal is to serve the greatest good for the greatest number. We acknowledge the benefits of sharing resources in our effort to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number. In the spirit of beneficence, OCNE partners maintain open sharing of best practices and materials and seek to participate to the fullest extent not only to gain the benefits of full participation, but also to contribute to others.
Collegiality develops when we create and communicate mutual respect (which extends to all colleagues, other schools and other states) through openness in problem solving, and in dealing with conflict and disagreement. Trust and compassion are paramount; and we have learned the joy of just listening to someone we care about. We acknowledge the friendship among OCNE partners that sometimes extends beyond mutual respect to deep felt affection for one another. Integrity is valued as being accountable, working through issues, problem solving, honesty, truthfulness, honoring diverse opinions. Playfulness and humor serve to provide us with a productive environment “If healthy professional life does not suffer because of playfulness, neither does playfulness suffer because of work.” We seek easy laughter as the norm. We desire a ripple effect of laughter and joy throughout the greater OCNE environment. We give others an opportunity to collaborate. We seek to promote a collegial atmosphere to be embraced by the entire nursing education community in Oregon.
We believe our work takes courage and perseverance. We seek to be proactive for the profession, and truly feel that our work is the result of a shared commitment for nursing as a profession and for nursing education. We believe this work is a legacy and take pride in the opportunity to contribute to it. We are committed to the work to keep nursing education vital and growing. We will listen to those who question our work, seek to understand their perspectives and will integrate change as needed. We acknowledge our shared vision must be dynamic and are committed to supporting each other in our effort to maintain the collective courage that will be required to meet various challenges the future may bring.
We recognize that conflict is necessary as we continue our process to maintain a shared commitment to common visions and goals. We cannot ignore conflict because to do so would diminish the whole group. Our group will be open about “hot issues” and share them to problem solve and work towards an agreeable outcome. To manage conflict we will debate on the basis of facts and comprehensive information, develop multiple alternatives to enrich the level of debate, share common agreed upon goals, inject humor in to the decision process, maintain a balanced power structure, and resolve issues without forcing consensus. We challenge ourselves to deal with conflict in a direct and timely manner, and then to move on without residual negative reactions.
Transformational Leadership starts with the development of a vision, we believe our view of the future is exciting and sustainable. We will take every opportunity available to share our vision with others. We acknowledge transformational leadership involves creating and sustaining trust, and are committed to displaying personal and organizational integrity as a critical value that is necessary for realizing our shared vision. Transformational leadership requires a tolerance for ambiguity. While the details required to implement our vision often include issues that must be negotiated among various constituents our vision is clear. The development of a shared curriculum that will prepare nurses who can function in the rapidly changing health care environment is a stable goal.
Shared transformational leadership involves rotating responsibilities that reflect each person using personal areas of expertise. We recognize one another’s leadership when we need it; and embrace sharing the leadership role. As identified in the OCNE Operating Guidelines, each program representative carries an important leadership role at their home institution.
As transformational leaders we must remain visible and courageous. Our unswerving commitment will keep us, particularly through difficult times when some may question whether the vision can ever be achieved. We strive to inspire each other to a high level of commitment to the vision. We believe that success comes through deep and sustained commitment.