Catawba College students interested in pursuing careers in Nursing will find a B.S.N. pre-licensure program among new academic offerings available to them in fall 2017. The College learned that the N.C. Board of Nursing had unanimously approved the new program at its May 12th meeting.
Up to 50 students will be allowed in the B.S.N. pre-licensure program, according to Dr. Racquel Ingram, Chair of Catawba College’s Nursing Department.
Woodie
Bailey Woodie of Salisbury, a rising junior at Catawba, is one of the students who will be applying to enter the B.S.N. pre-licensure program. She shared her thoughts on her academic pursuits saying, “The opportunity to pursue my Nursing education at Catawba is exciting. I began my college years as a Biology major anticipating the beginning of Catawba’s Nursing School. Dr. Ingram has been so helpful with transitioning from Biology to the Nursing program. I look forward to the education I will receive and the doors that it will open for me.”
Prospective students to the B.S.N. pre-licensure program must complete a special nursing application and a health assessment form available online at www.catawba.edu/bsnPL.
The B.S.N. pre-licensure program follows Catawba College’s initial foray into Nursing, an R.N. to B.S.N. program launched in spring 2017 in the School of Evening and Graduate Studies. That original program offering, which will continue, offered Registered Nurses (RNs) who wanted to pursue a four-year baccalaureate degree the opportunity to do so using a flexible block format.
The new program will utilize a state-of-the-art lab with simulation mannequins for hands-on training of nursing students. These Sims, as they are called, teach nursing students how to properly assess and monitor patient vital signs. The program will also rely heavily on experiential learning opportunities afforded Catawba nursing students thanks to unique partnerships with local medical facilities and health care providers.
"We prepare nurse generalists and we want them to be able to meet or exceed all of the nursing outcomes that are required by AACN (American Association of Colleges of Nursing) baccalaureate essentials," Ingram said. "Our students may decide to specialize in one area of clinical nursing practice after they graduate, but we give them a broad variety of experiences to meet complex health care needs of 21st century patients across the lifespan."
In addition to Ingram, Vivian Stamps serves as a nursing instructor in the program, while Theressa Parks is the department’s administrative assistant.
The mission of the program reads: The Catawba College Department of Nursing seeks to prepare competent, diverse nurse professionals to meet the holistic health care needs of a culturally diverse society; using an interdisciplinary approach to blend the knowledge and competencies of liberal studies, and evidence-based practice healthcare models to embrace nursing education, nursing practice, critical thinking, scholarship, and service.
For more information call Dr. Racquel Ingram, Chair of Nursing Department, at (704) 645-4508 or visit www.catawba.edu/nursing.
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