Foundation

Our model is built on the Quality Caring Model© created by nursing theorist, Joanne Duffy, Ph.D. It connects OU Health values with eight caring behaviors:

• Mutual Problem Solving: Help patients and caregivers understand how to confront, learn and think about their health and illness, and enhance their ability to participate in making decisions about care.
• Healing Environment: Provide care in a setting that is focused on maintaining patient privacy, safety and control.
• Attentive Reassurance: Make a conscious effort to be authentically available and fully attentive to the patient.
• Human Respect: Honor the individual’s worth through unconditional acceptance, kind and careful handling of their body, and recognition of their rights and responsibilities.
• Encouraging Manner: Convey messages of support, positive thoughts and feelings, and openness to the feelings of others.
• Appreciation of Unique Meaning: Recognize that each patient/family is a blend of their unique life experiences and sociocultural connections and incorporate that knowledge into caring relationships.
• Affiliation Needs: Appreciate and involve the family and caregivers, recognizing that everyone needs to feel they have a place/role in the family and in other social contexts.
• Basic Human Needs: Understand that all human beings have basic physiological, safety, love/belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization needs.

Our model stresses the importance and significance of relationships with patients and caregivers, with our colleagues, with ourselves and with the community while also focusing on an approach to ensure our patients and communities feel cared for through a culture of collaboration. The cornerstone of our care delivery and the Quality Caring Model is aimed at how professional nursing directly correlates and impacts quality outcomes while offering an increased quality of life for our patients and community.

Our Values in Action

• Patients First: We prioritize patients by being attentive and present, offering compassionate support, and creating a healing environment during their most challenging times.
• Relentless Excellence: We are committed to continuous learning and improvement, ensuring patient safety and high-quality care through education, skill development, and national certifications.
• Integrity: We ensure our words match our actions, hold ourselves accountable, and follow the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics and the Oklahoma Board of Nursing Practice Act to deliver high-quality care.
• Inclusion: We foster belonging and respect, valuing diversity and treating every patient, visitor, and team member with unconditional acceptance.
• Teamwork: Collaboration drives success. We work across teams to solve problems, support each other, and fulfill OU Health’s purpose of “Improving lives through healing and discovery” and vision “To be the destination of choice for patients with complex and serious conditions, and to be known as a top-tier academic referral center.”
• Learning: As a learning organization, we encourage professional growth, specialty certifications, and mentoring the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Relationships at the Core

Our model stresses the importance and significance of relationships with:

• Patients and Caregivers – through empathy and presence
• Colleagues – through collaboration and support
• Ourselves – through reflection and growth
• Community – through service and advocacy

Commitment to Driving Excellence

Our care delivery, guided by the Nursing Professional Practice Model, ensures that nursing directly impacts quality outcomes while offering an increased quality of life for our patients and community. At OU Health, nursing is more than a profession – it’s a commitment to excellence.