Bachelor of Science

This program has a residency requirement of 30 credit hours.

About the Program

This degree program is a flexible, upperdivision program and prepares you to deliver comprehensive nursing care to patients of all ages in a variety of health care settings as direct care providers and leaders. Our courses build on, but do not duplicate, the content taught in basic nursing programs.

Our bachelor's program is a direct response to today's health care situation: patients are sicker, hospital stays shorter, and community health nursing stronger. The curriculum emphasizes the leadership skills essential for problem-solving and improving the delivery of health care. The curriculum includes courses in epidemiology, gerontology, ethics, health policy and politics, patient education, family health nursing, statistics, research and management. Clinical experiences augment classroom theory in the Community Health Nursing course and capstone course, Trends in Practice.

To accommodate students' schedules, courses are offered in the fall and spring during the day, late afternoon and evening. A few courses are offered during the summer session. Classes are taught Monday through Thursday. Most classes meet once a week for three hours. Often, two or three courses may be scheduled on the same day to fulfill eight or nine credits per semester. In addition, classes are alternately scheduled; for example, nursing courses offered during the daytime one year will be scheduled during evening hours the next year.

Each student is assigned a nursing faculty member as an academic advisor to work closely with students to help fit courses and program requirements into their work and daily lives.