BSN Pre-Licensure Nursing

View course information and requirements for the Nursing Pre-Licensure program:

Upper Division Nursing – 60 Credits (Beginning Cohort 2025)

• NURS 1101 will continue to be offered prior to Junior – Spring semester in the Freshman or Sophomore AY

The following websites have financial aid information and/or numerous scholarship opportunities for nursing students:

• CampusRN ($15,000 in scholarships available to nursing and allied health students)
• Forgivable Education Loans for Service (FELS)
• Discover Nursing
• North Carolina Nurses Association

Admissions Requirements

1. Admission to Catawba College
2. Application to the nursing major (also known as Nursing Upper Division)
3. Completion of all Core General Education Courses with a "C" or better.
   
   • General Psychology
   • Sociology
   • Ethics
   • Developmental Psychology
   • Statistics
   • Anatomy and Physiology I (with lab)
   • Anatomy and Physiology II (with lab)
   • Microbiology (with lab)
   • Chemistry (with lab)
4. Cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better, upon submission of application.
5. Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI) Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS) Level V (5) test results. Proficient Level (70) preferred.   Submit TEAS scores with application materials or before.  
6. Submit official transcripts of all collegiate work; unofficial for courses taken at Catawba College.
7. Meet Core Performance Standards.
8. Submit Application by designated deadline. 

Application Process

Our application period is December 1, 2024 – February 14, 2025. 

View the current version of the handbook below:

Meet the faculty of the Nursing Department: 

DEPARTMENT OF NURSING MISSION STATEMENT

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. 

CORE VALUES (DEFINED)

Scholarship: (Evidence-based practice, research, and best practice models)

Character: (Professionalism; values of altruism, autonomy, caring, human dignity, integrity, and   social justice)

Culture: (Arts, beliefs, customs, and other collective characteristics)

Service: (Provision of care, assistance, recommendations, counseling, education, and additional service provisions.)

DEPARTMENT OF NURSING VISION STATEMENT

The Catawba College Department of Nursing will be recognized for preparing professional nurse generalist to function at their highest level of excellence in education and practice. These nurse professionals will serve as leaders while meeting the complex health and wellness needs of individuals, local communities, societies, and global populations using evidence-based and best practice health care models in the provision and promotion of safe, culturally appropriate, and quality nursing care.

 DEPARTMENT OF NURSING CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The curriculum is guided by the standards instituted by the AACN Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice which provides the educational framework for the preparation of professional nurse generalists and is supported by the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) competencies, and the metaparadigm concepts of nursing, environment, person, and health.

DEPARTMENT OF NURSING PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT

Consistent with the mission of Catawba College and the Department of Nursing, the nursing faculty believes that the Baccalaureate degree provides foundational support in the sciences and liberal studies that are necessary in preparing professional nurse leaders to provide and direct care for a dynamic and diverse society both locally and globally. The faculty also believes that life-long learning is critical to advancing the nursing discipline and therefore recognizes the need for graduate education preparation; along with the continuous need to cultivate critical thinking, enhance evidence-based practice, and to serve with community and interdisciplinary partners as active co-participants in education, scholarship, and service. The metaparadigm concepts of nursing, environment, person, and health are also important to this philosophy.

METAPARADIGM

Nursing

Nursing knowledge and judgment is derived from theoretical principles of health and science and is supported by foundational competencies of liberal studies to include critical thinking, effective communication, and standards of nursing practice. Professional nurses integrate these principles, competencies, and standards with evidence-based nursing practice using best practice models and the nursing process to promote safe, continuous, quality health care and wellness. Nurses use the delivery and application of nursing knowledge to intervene accordingly with respect to spiritual, legal, cultural, and ethical considerations of a person and their environment based on their actual, perceived, or desired state of health. Nursing practice positively impacts the environment by promoting disease prevention and management, education, and counseling using an interdisciplinary approach to meet the complex health care needs of a dynamically diverse society. 

 Environment

Environment is an organized system of surroundings to include a person’s home, community, society, work, and family. The environment is influenced by a person’s socioeconomic status, policy, technological accessibility, and sociocultural aspects which impacts healthcare and influences nursing interactions, and internal or external environmental stimuli. Nursing interventions are directed toward creating, modifying, and enhancing environments to promote optimal health.

Persons

Persons are unique and holistic individuals with physiological, psychosocial, psychological, spiritual, cultural, and developmental needs throughout the life-cycle. A person has constant interactions across the life-cycle within the environment and with members of society to include family, community, and global populations. These interactions affect actual or perceived state of health, health care needs, and health care beliefs.

 Health

Health is a dynamic state of perceived and actual biological, physiological, developmental, and psychosocial balance across the wellness-illness continuum. Health is viewed as a holistic process that should be accessible to all but may vary based on a person’s environment, beliefs, culture, and social and economic status. Nursing care assists in the achievement of a balanced state of health via health care promotion and management, and disease prevention.

Program Outcomes and Student Learning Objectives

Florence Nightingale Award

Famous for being the ‘Lady with the Lamp’ who organized the nursing of sick and wounded soldiers during the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale's far-sighted ideas and reforms have influenced the very nature of modern healthcare. Her greatest achievement was to transform nursing into a respectable profession for women.

Nightingale campaigned tirelessly to improve health standards. Her influence on today's nursing ranges from her ward designs (known as Nightingale Wards), which were developed in response to her realization that hospital buildings themselves could affect the health and recovery of patients, through to pioneering infection control measures and the championing of a healthy diet as a key factor for recovery.

Nightingale inspired the founding of the International Red Cross, which still awards the Florence Nightingale Medal for nurses who have given exceptional care to the sick and wounded in war or peace.

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.

CORE VALUES (DEFINED)

Scholarship: (Evidence-based practice, research, and best practice models)

Character: (Professionalism; values of altruism, autonomy, caring, human dignity, integrity, and   social justice)

Culture: (Arts, beliefs, customs, and other collective characteristics)

Service: (Provision of care, assistance, recommendations, counseling, education, and additional service provisions.)

The recipient of the Catawba College Department of Nursing Nightingale Award serves as a leader while meeting the complex health and wellness needs of individuals, local communities, and societies. The recipient utilizes evidence-based and best practice health care models in the provision and promotion of safe and quality care and embodies the very nature of the profession Florence Nightingale campaigned for and is in modern healthcare today. 

Award Recipients:

• 2019: Sarah Ducote
• 2020: Paige Carmack
• 2021:  Richard Ajwang
• 2022: Sarah Grooms
• 2023: No Awardee

Nursing Clinical Practice Excellence Award

The Department of Nursing Clinical Practice Excellence Award is presented for superior delivery of patient-centered care, efficient and timely clinical documentation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and leadership while in the clinical setting.

Award Recipients:

• 2020: Cassie Damery
• 2021: Madison Hunter
• 2022: Hope Davis
• 2023: Camryn Bost

Nursing Academic Excellence Award

The Department of Nursing Excellence Award is presented to the student who has an outstanding ability to cope with a challenging schedule, solve problems, apply the nursing process, and use nursing knowledge to earn the highest program GPA.

Award Recipients:

• 2020: Brooke Walser
• 2021: Kasey Rowden
• 2022: Mary Beth Wall
• 2023:  No Awardee

Catawba College's degree programs satisfy the professional licensure and/or certification requirements in North Carolina and prepare students to sit for these exams. However, requirements in other states may be different.

If you are considering a degree program that may, would, could or potentially lead to a professional license and/or certification, please note that at this time Catawba College may or may not be able to advise whether a program meets requirements outside of North Carolina. Prior to enrolling in a degree program, please discuss this important topic with your program of interest.