Nursing
Professor Paulette Thabault (Director);
Associate Professor Kate Healy; Assistant Professors, Llynne Kiernan, and Jessica Wood; Lecturers Sarah Manacek, and Lorraine Pitcher.
The School of Nursing offers a four-year program leading to the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and eligibility to take the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). The first year of the BSN program is dedicated to courses in the Humanities, Sciences, Social Sciences and two foundation courses in Nursing. The clinical experience begins in the spring of the sophomore year and continues through the remainder of the program. By graduation students will have practiced in a variety of settings, including hospitals, community/home health agencies, schools and clinics. Well equipped, modern, simulation laboratories provide on-campus learning labs for skill acquisition and health assessment practice. Morning, evening, and weekend hours are utilized for the clinical experience. Students will take a pre-NCLEX exam in their senior year to determine readiness for NCLEX exams. Students are required to purchase student uniforms. Students are responsible for their own transportation to and from clinical agencies. Nursing majors must have current “American Heart Association Health Care Provider” certification in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) upon entering the sophomore year and through all subsequent nursing courses. All immunizations must be up to date and tuberculosis skin test done annually.
The School of Nursing also offers an accelerated track for students with a previous degree and who have met the accelerated track pre-requisites. Students in this track begin in the summer prior to the junior level courses and join the junior cohort in the fall.
Goals:
- Integrate knowledge derived from nursing science, health related sciences, and humanities when designing and providing patient-centered care.
- Provide patient centered care in which the dignity, spirituality, and rights of the individual family and community are respected.
- Promote the profession’s obligation to legal, ethical and moral standards.
- Lead based on the values of commitment, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.
- Employ informatics to communicate, manage knowledge, mitigate error, and support decision-making.
- Communicate effectively in a manner that fosters respectful and collaborative decision making, thus enhancing patient satisfaction and health outcomes.
- Integrate political awareness, critical thinking, social justice and participation in the policy process with professional role behavior.
- Use the best current evidence coupled with clinical reasoning to minimize risk and improve quality and safety of patient care.
- Value the pursuit of practice excellence, lifelong learning, and professional engagement to foster professional growth and development.
Outcomes:
- Ethical behavior and clinical reasoning, promoting advocacy, collaboration and leadership in the patient care setting
- Professional accountability for nursing practice with emphasis on patient safety
- Evidence Based Practice skills with the ability to conduct basic research
- Patient centeredness with emphasis on families and communities.
- Connectedness, with strong peer advocacy in the work place environment
Accreditation:
The B.S. in Nursing major is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 530, Washington, DC 20036, (202)-887-8476 and approved by the Vermont State Board of Nursing, Office of Professional Regulations, 89 Main Street 3rd Floor, Montpelier, VT 05520-2482, (802) 828-2396.
Philosophy:
Nursing at Norwich University is grounded in core essentials of baccalaureate education and predicated on the profession’s ideals to meet the needs of a complex, dynamic healthcare environment. Inherent in professional practice are the emerging trends in population health, patient care technology, and cultural diversity. The Faculty believes that through direct patient care and simulated clinical experience students will acquire the knowledge base to ensure optimum health outcomes for our patients, families and communities.
The Faculty further believes that teaching and learning evolves, through a seamless progression, in competency based nursing practice. Graduates become proficient in patient centered care with emphasis on quality improvement methods and patient safety. The responsibility of the professional nurse is complex, requiring expertise in leadership, communication and teamwork.
Admission standards:
In addition to the university General Admission Requirements, nursing applicants must:
- Meet or exceed the SAT requirement of 1050 for Math and Reading combined
- Complete 4 years of high school (HS) math including Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry
- Complete 3 years of HS science including Biology and Chemistry
- Transfer college level science courses current within 5 years
- Online science courses are not transferable
- College level GPA must be at a minimum of 3.0
- Transfer students must submit a letter of reference from the Chairperson/Dean of the transferring school prior to acceptance.
- Background screening is a requirement for admission and condition of both acceptance and progression in nursing
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Students must also submit to intermittent background screening as required by clinical agencies. A criminal record deemed to be of consequence or the habitual intemperate use or addiction to habit forming substances precludes enrollment in the Program.
Progression and Graduation:
A minimum grade of C+ is required in all Nursing courses. C + grades are required in BI 215, BI 216, BI 220, CH 101 , CH 102 , MA 232 and MA 235 to progress within the program. Only one failed nursing course may be repeated during the program. A student must receive a grade of C+ or higher in the repeated nursing course in order to progress in the program. In nursing courses with both theory and clinical components, the clinical component of the course is graded as a letter grade. Because the clinical component of the course is an integral component to the course, the student must successfully complete the clinical component of the course in order to pass the course. If the student does not successfully complete the clinical portion of the course, a grade of F will be recorded for the course and the clinical. Students must pass both the theory and clinical components of a nursing course in order to pass the course. If the students fails one component and passes the other, the course is failed. In order to progress, students must meet the criteria for academic progression as stated in the Norwich University 2012 Academic Regulations. Upon successful completion of the program, the graduate is awarded the Bachelor of Science Nursing degree.
Each state’s Board of Nursing has the sole authority to grant graduates the privilege of taking the NCLEX-RN examination; therefore, students are directed to refer to the state in which they plan to practice for specific legal requirements. An applicant may be required to submit additional documentation and could be denied the privilege of sitting for the NCLEX-RN examination subject to the particular state’s regulation
Clinical Warning/Suspension:
In all nursing courses, with a clinical component, a written clinical warning may be given to students who clinical performance is unsafe/unsatisfactory. When a student has, in the professional judgement of a clinical instructor, performed so as to endanger a client or is unsafe/inappropriate to provide clinical care, the clinical instructor will immediately remove the student from the clinical setting. See the School of Nursing BSN Student Handbook for further information.
Dismissal from the Nursing program:
Students will be dismissed from the School of Nursing for any of the following:
- Earning a grade less than C+ in two Nursing courses during the student's enrollment in the Nursing program.
- Failure to achieve a minimum grade of C+ in any repeated Nursing course.
- Failure to maintain a cumulative 2.0 GPA
- Unsafe laboratory/clinical practice as defined by the School of Nursing
- Unprofessional behavior, as defined by the ANA Code of Ethics and ANA Standards of Practice
- Failure to earn a grade of C+ on a second attempt of BI 215, BI 216, BI 220 ,CH 102 CH 101, MA 232 and MA 235