The Bachelor of Nursing at the Academy of Nursing develops students to become caring professional nurses who operate at the heart of the community; play an essential role within their professional field and specific work environment, have an eye for innovation leadership and make a practical continuous contribution to the quality of care.
The Academy of Nursing inspires students by offering challenging assignments that are derived from professional nursing practice and are linked to the developments within the nursing profession, professional nursing practice and society in general.
 
Through intensive contact with the professional field, the Bachelor of Nursing program strives to develop a curriculum that is in line with the needs within society, and anticipates on new developments in the profession, both nationally and internationally.
 
As a starting professional, the nurse is a generalist who provides high-quality, compassionate and respectful care. The graduate nurse demonstrates a professional attitude at all times. The graduate nurse is able to work in various healthcare fields. The Canadian Medical Education Directions for Specialists (CanMEDS) roles that a nurse needs to work in these different work settings are the same.
 
The Bachelor of Nursing program offers students the greatest possible chance of a place on the labor market after graduation.
 

CanMEDS roles	Areas of competence
1. Nurse Expert & Professional Care Provider	Professional practice
2. Communicator	Communication
3. Collaborator	Collaboration
4. Evidence-based Practice Scholar	Knowledge & Science
5. Health Promotor	Social practice (civic professionalism)
6. Organizer	Organization
7. Professional & Quality Care Facilitator	Professionalism & Leadership in Quality & Safety

Healthcare provider		Core concepts
Clinical reasoning		The continual process-based collection and analysis of data, designed to help the healthcare provider identify the patient's needs and problems and select the right outcomes and interventional procedures.
Providing the care		Providing comprehensive care by independently performing all the necessary nursing procedures (including risky procedures and procedures which are only allowed to be carried out by competent medical practitioners) in complex situations, having due regard for applicable laws and regulations and always keeping in mind the patient's overall condition.
Improving people's self-management skills		Helping patients, their loved ones and their social contacts improve their self-management skills, with a view to allowing them to be better able, despite their health issues, to perform activities of daily living and enjoy a better quality of life.
Referring patients to other doctors		Determining and describing the nature, duration, amount and purpose of the care and nursing the client needs and organising for them to receive that care and nursing, in consultation with the client, on the basis of the problems with which the patient has been diagnosed or of problems yet to be examined and diagnosed.
Communicator		Core concepts
Personalised approach to communication		Actively listening to the patient, providing the patient with information, allowing them to make decisions with regard to the care with which he/she is to be provided, and treating the patient like a unique person; acting alternatively like a guide, coach, expert or adviser, depending on what is needed at the time.
Using ICT		Utilising the latest information and communications technologies and providing patients with remote healthcare (eHealth), in addition to face-to-face meetings with the patients.
Partner and collaborator		Core concepts
Professional relationship		Maintaining contact with the patient, their loved ones and social contacts, maintaining long-term care-based relationships and carefully cutting back on contacts as necessary.
Joint decision-making		Systematically consulting the patient and their loved ones on the nursing care to be administered, ensuring that various sources of knowledge are explicitly considered, and taking into consideration the patient's values when decisions are to be made.
Multidisciplinary collaboration		Acting on the basis of one's own expertise as a nurse and collaborating with representatives of one's own discipline and other disciplines (both from the healthcare industry and from other industries) on an equal footing with regard to multidisciplinary care and treatment goals.
Continuity of care		Sharing knowledge and information so as to guarantee the uninterrupted involvement in the patient's therapy of the necessary healthcare providers over the course of time.
Self-reflecting professional adhering to the principles of EBP		Core concepts
Research skills		In situations where care must be provided and where things must be organised, engaging in critical analysis and examinations, reflecting on one's findings, being able to account for one's own decisions on the basis of different sources of information, taking a methodical approach, including a thorough analysis of the problem, and completing the entire examination cycle so as to improve a particular professional situation.
Applying the principles of EBP		In consultation with the patient and/or their contacts, one's colleagues and representatives of other disciplines, actively seeking to find recent knowledge as presented in academic journals, guidelines or protocols and weighing this knowledge against one's own professional expertise and the patient's knowledge, wishes and preferences, or those of their contacts.
Professional development		Proactively seeking to obtain and maintain a high level of nursing expertise and helping others do the same, and actively contributing to the search for and development and exchange of new knowledge or new types of knowledge.
Reflective practice		Critically reflecting on one's own conduct as a nurse as related to the professional code of conduct and professional values, and presenting thorough arguments and a heart for one's patients in discussions on patients with both professionals from one's own discipline and from other disciplines, taking into account the patient's emotions and interests, and always remembering that medical ethics must be upheld.
Moral sensitivity		Displaying continual compassion and sensitivity to the patient's wishes, needs and associated emotions, and responding to them in an appropriate and patient-specific way, thus ensuring that the patient feels heard and understood.
Health promotor		Core concepts
Prevention-oriented analysis		Analysing the patient's conduct and environment to determine how they contribute to the patient's health problems and other patients' health problems.
Promoting a healthy lifestyle		Helping people establish a healthy lifestyle in relation to existing or potential health issues.
Organiser		Core concepts
Discipline-specific leadership		Having an enterprising, coach-like and result-oriented attitude so as to be able to take charge of one's own discipline.
Care coordination		Taking the initiative in organising the patient's care, consulting the patient and arranging things with the various healthcare providers and healthcare organisations so as to ensure that the patient receives proper care in accordance with the treatment plan.
Promoting safety		Continually and methodically contributing to the promotion and safeguarding of safe conditions for both patients and healthcare providers.
Nursing entrepreneurship		Understanding and acting in accordance with the financial, economic and organisational interests of various types of healthcare providers.
Healthcare professional and promotor of high-quality care		Core concepts
Promoting quality assurance (providing high-quality care in BN2020)		Administering high-quality care and monitoring and safeguarding the quality of the nursing care being administered in a methodical and critical manner.
Participating in quality assurance		Making a proactive contribution to the healthcare organisation's quality assurance strategies.
Professional conduct		Acting and conducting oneself in accordance with professional standards and the professional code of conduct, being accountable for one's own decisions and upholding the good reputation of the profession.