Department of Nursing and Public Health

The Department of Nursing and Public Health prepares nurses for professional practice and leadership to meet the needs of a diverse society.

The Department of Nursing and Public Health continues to evolve as an innovative program of academic and professional excellence in nursing.

• Prepare graduates for professional nursing practice in generalist and advanced nursing roles
• Develop a foundation for graduate and doctoral study in nursing

The Department of Nursing and Public Health educates students in baccalaureate and master’s degree programs for ethical practice and leadership in professional nursing. To accomplish this, the faculty and students are dedicated to creating an educational environment that focuses on:

• Integrating liberal and professional education;
• Using collaborative and active learning strategies among faculty and students;
• Demonstrating ethical professional nursing practice with diverse populations;
• Providing leadership in healthcare systems that promote safe, quality, and cost-effective patient and family-centered care;
• Engaging in values-driven nursing practice that encompasses altruism, autonomy, human dignity, integrity, social justice; and
• Developing increasingly complex nursing practice competencies.

The program’s vision is a public health workforce that produces equitable access to health-promoting conditions through novel approaches to addressing the social and structural determinants of health.

The program’s mission is to lead public health towards a culture of innovation to overcome structural barriers to health equity through education, scholarship and collaboration within Elmhurst, Chicagoland, and the global community.

The program’s goals:  

• Prepare students to lead public health disciplinary transformation through transdisciplinary educational opportunities that take advantage of our liberal arts university setting.
• Serve as a regional hub for the development and dissemination of public-health-specific leadership and innovation practices.
• Foster student and faculty participation in interdisciplinary scholarly activity that informs public health organizational and structural impact.

The program’s values are:

• Intellectual curiosity: We pair academic rigor with intellectual engagement; critical and creative inquiry; innovative thinking and integrity.
• Impact: We focus on translating knowledge to action; our ultimate purpose is to use what we learn through scholarship and innovation to create health-promoting policy, culture, practice, and community change.
• Diversity: We are intentional in cultivating a diverse learning community and recognize that this diversity itself is a valuable component of the learning experience.
• Equity: We are committed to equity in how we design our school community and in our commitment to structural health promotion efforts for those whom our efforts are intended to serve.
• Professionalism: We conduct ourselves with integrity and collegiality in our scholarly and service activities