College Catalog 2024-2025
Department of Nursing
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Nursing
Degree: Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Major: Nursing
Chair: Nancy Haugen
Faculty: Summer Buchmeier, Miranda Cashio, Cassidy Hughes, Brandy McCarroll, Dawn L. Meade, Christine Mullins, Renee Stanley
The Department of Nursing offers a program of study leading to the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree (BSN). This program is approved by the Virginia State Board of Nursing and is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. The nursing major has two tracks: Pre-Licensure and RN to BSN. Upon completion of the Liberal Arts Core courses and the required nursing courses, the student will have accrued a total of 126 hours (Pre-Licensure) or 120-122 hours (RN to BSN) for graduation.
The Pre-Licensure track is for students who wish to earn a BSN and take the registered nurse licensure examination, the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN®). Once admitted to the nursing major, students in the Pre-Licensure Program must enroll full-time.
The RN to BSN track is a program for registered nurses who have either a diploma or an associate degree in nursing. The RN to BSN track has been specifically designed for the working registered nurse student. The courses in the RN-BSN track are all online. The optional minor in Leadership Studies will provide the registered nurse with the skills and knowledge necessary for coordinating and managing patient care in complex health situations in health care facilities and in the community. The BSN program is designed to prepare the student for graduate study.
Mission Statement
The mission of the nursing program is to prepare graduates with a liberal education, expanded knowledge about nursing and health care, competence in nursing practice, preparation for graduate study, and tools for lifelong learning. The program prepares professional nurses with the ability to practice in a caring manner on a regional, national, and global level.
Philosophy
The faculty in the Department of Nursing bring distinct and diverse experiences, abilities, and beliefs to the curriculum and the classroom. The philosophy of the Department of Nursing exemplifies the beliefs that faculty and students share about health, the recipients of care, role preparation, nursing, and nursing education:
Health is a state of physical, psychosocial, interpersonal and environmental well-being based on adaptive responses to stressors. Health is viewed on a continuum from wellness to illness.
Patients, the recipients of nursing care, include individuals, families, groups, and communities. Patients and nurses collaborate in the assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of nursing and health care.
Nurses are responsible for maintaining, promoting and enhancing the health of individuals, families, groups and communities, and for contributing to improvements in the health care system. Nurses emphasize primary health care, promote healthy lifestyles, and recognize the importance of health promotion and disease prevention.
The role of the nurse evolves in response to changing expectations and demands in the marketplace. Nurses provide holistic health care that includes health education, advocacy, and a committed, caring relationship. They are responsible for participating in discussions and seeking solutions for health care issues locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.
The faculty are dedicated to exploring and adopting approaches to education enhances relationships between learners and teachers, creates a stimulating learning environment, and promotes educational excellence. The curriculum reflects characteristics and needs of students, traditional and emerging health care and nursing practice, and a community-based health care system. Communication, reasoning, analysis, research, decision-making, and technological innovations - central concepts of baccalaureate nursing education - influence the curriculum and pedagogy.
Faculty and students share responsibility for learning goals and outcomes, and participatory learning activities. Faculty facilitate and guide learning experiences consistent with student knowledge, skills, and experience. Faculty and students interact with community and health care professionals to provide disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning activities and practice opportunities.
An active, stimulating, and exciting environment encourages inquiry, curiosity, critical thinking, and insight. Students in such an environment achieve at a higher level and gain tools and aspirations for continuing education and lifelong learning.
Program Learning Outcomes
The Department of Nursing prepares graduates to meet the following goals in their entry-level practice with individuals, families, and communities:
- Integrate, translate, and apply established and evolving nursing knowledge and knowledge from other disciplines including liberal arts and natural and social sciences to form the basis for clinical judgement and innovation in nursing practice.
- Implements safe and effective person-centered care built upon a scientific body of knowledge that guides nursing practice.
- Integrate principles of population health along a continuum of prevention to disease management for the improvement of health outcomes.
- Generate, synthesize, translate, apply, and disseminate nursing knowledge to improve health and transform health care.
- Employ established and emerging principles of safety and improvement science to enhance quality and minimize risk of harm to patients and providers through system effectiveness and individual performance.
- Collaborate across professions with care team members, patients, families, communities, and other stakeholders to optimize care, enhance the healthcare experience, and strengthen outcomes.
- Identify and coordinate resources effectively and proactively within complex systems of healthcare.
- Utilizes health care technologies to manage and improve the delivery of health care services using best practice, professional, and regulatory standards.
- Form and cultivate a professional nursing identity including practicing nursing in compliance with legal, ethical, and professional standards.
- Participate in activities and self-reflection that foster personal health, resilience, well-being, lifelong learning, and support the acquisition of nursing expertise and leadership practice.
Admisson: Pre-Licensure Program
Applicants to the Pre-Licensure Program in Nursing should follow the application procedures outlined earlier in this Catalog. Students who are offered admission to the College must also be formally admitted to the nursing major.
In order to progress to the courses in the major, students must successfully complete the following core requirements:
- BIO 1010 and BIO 1011
- Enrollment in or completion of BIO 2310 /BIO 2311 and BIO 2320 /BIO 2321 , Anatomy and Physiology I and II
Note regarding science courses: All transfer courses for the sciences must transfer as UVA Wise course transfer equivalencies. Exceptions are only available from the Chair of the Nursing Department.
- Completion of English sequence, ENG 1010 and ENG 1020
- Completion of, or exemption from, SEM 1010 - SEM 1020
- Completion or in sequence to complete the following courses prior to entering the nursing program:
- PHI 1030 (or equivalent, such as Ethics)
- PSY 1100 (or equivalent, such as Lifespan or Developmental)
- SOC 1100 (or equivalent, such as Marriage and Family)
- ECO 1050 or other course to meet social sciences requirement
- MTH 1180
- Minimum cumulative GPA of 2.75 on a 4.0 scale for all Liberal Arts Core requirements in the nursing major.
- Minimum science GPA of 2.75 on a 4.0 scale for Biology, and Anatomy and Physiology courses.
- No grade less than a “C-” will be accepted for any Liberal Arts Core course required for the nursing major.
- Students must submit a copy of their high school transcripts or a copy of high school equivalence certificate, and if the student is a foreign graduate, a transcript translated into English to the department of Nursing prior.
Candidates may be awarded provisional acceptance following the application process. All Liberal Arts Core and prerequisite courses must be completed prior to beginning the clinical nursing courses in the fall semester of the junior year. All general science courses must be completed by the end of spring semester of sophomore year. The student must maintain the minimum cumulative GPA of 2.75 in all course work prior to beginning the junior clinical nursing courses. Science courses must be completed with a minimum GPA of 2.75 with no grade in any science course less than “C-“.
Admission: RN to BSN Program
Applicants who meet the following criteria are eligible for admission into the nursing major with junior status:
- Graduation from a state-approved nursing program from a regionally accredited community college or a diploma from a school of nursing
- Completion of 20 or more of the 53 credit hours of Liberal Arts Core required for graduation with a grade of C or above
- Cumulative grade point average of 2.0 or above for all prior academic (non-nursing) work and a 2.3 (C+) or above for all prior nursing course work
- Licensure as a registered nurse in one or more states (must be licensed in states where clinical experiences are conducted)
- Characteristics consistent with acceptable academic study and professional practice
Applicants to the program follow regular College admission procedures. In addition, as transfer students, they must submit the following:
- Official transcripts of all academic work completed at other academic institutions they attended including hospital schools of nursing
- Registration number and expiration date of license to practice nursing
Academic Progression
Nursing majors are governed by the College continuance policies as stated in The University of Virginia’s College at Wise Catalog as well as the following Department-specific policies:
- Students are expected to successfully complete required prerequisite Liberal Arts Core coursework prior to beginning upper level nursing courses. In order to remain in good academic standing, an overall cumulative GPA of 2.75 or better is required in Liberal Arts Core courses required for the nursing major. A GPA of 2.75 is required in the science courses. No grade less than a “C-” in any science course or Liberal Arts Core course required for the nursing major will be accepted.
- A grade of 80% or better in all nursing courses is required to continue in the nursing program. Students are required to pass the clinical lab associated with a nursing course. Failure in either the theory or clinical component requires repeating both associated courses after successfully petitioning for re-admittance to the program. For example, failure of NUR 3000 would require repeating NUR 3000 and NUR 3010 ; failure of NUR 3010 would require repeating NUR 3000 and NUR 3010 .
- In order to achieve a passing course grade in a didactic nursing course, both the test average and final course grade must be at least 80 percent. The test average is calculated prior to any other coursework being calculated into the final grade. If the test average is not 80 percent, a grade of “F” will be issued for the course.
- Students who achieve a final course grade of less than 80 percent in any nursing course are unable to enroll in subsequent nursing courses. Students may petition to the Nursing Department to be accepted into the failed course the next time it is scheduled, on a space available basis. Sophomore students who are unsuccessful in passing NUR 2100 , NUR 3130 or NUR 3140 must reapply to the nursing major with the next applicant class.
- A nursing course may be repeated only once. Failure in any two nursing courses will result in dismissal from the nursing program.
- Students requesting or receiving a grade of Incomplete (“I”) in any nursing course(s) may not enroll in subsequent courses. Continued progression in the nursing major is contingent upon removal of the grade of “I” as described in The University of Virginia’s College at Wise Catalog.
- Each semester, students will be required to complete computerized testing activities through Assessment Technologies, Inc. (ATI) The testing modules are intended to facilitate learning and remediation throughout each course as needed and on an individual basis. The purchase of the testing modules is required prior to the start of each semester. Failure to purchase the testing module will result in the student’s exclusion from class and will result in a course failure if the student does not perform the testing as required by the course instructor.
- Junior students who do not pass all three required ATIs (Fundamentals, Pharmacology and Mental Health) with a Level 2 or higher after their second attempt must enroll in a summer online remediation course to improve study and test-taking skills.
- Senior students who do not pass two of the three required ATIs in the first semester (Medical-Surgical, OB, and pediatrics) with a Level 2 or higher after their second attempt must enroll in a one-hour remediation course the spring semester.
- Proctored Comprehensive Predictor ATI
- Students are required to pass the Comprehensive Predictor ATI with a 90% predictability of passing NCLEX-RN®. Students who do not achieve a 90% predictability the first time must complete a written focused review, attend the NCLEX-RN® review course, review and receive and “I” in NUR 4390. These students must enroll (at the student’s expense) in the Virtual ATI review course. The “I” will be changed to a final grade when the student receives notification from their ATI mentor that they are ready to take the NCLEX-RN® exam. Proof of notification should be presented to the department chair for the final grade to be issued.
Graduation
Students in the nursing major must meet UVA Wise graduation requirements listed elsewhere in this Catalog as well as the following specific requirements for the nursing major:
Pre-Licensure Program
All senior pre-licensure BSN students are expected to take a standardized readiness examination (ATI), administered by the department in the spring semester of senior year, to prepare for the licensure exam. This examination individually evaluates strengths and developmental needs of the graduating novice prior to sitting for the NCLEX-RN®. Students who do not achieve a 90 percent predictability for passing NCLEX-RN® on the standardized exam will be required to submit proof of payment for a licensure review course prior to graduation. Senior pre-licensure BSN students who successfully complete all requirements for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program are eligible to take the NCLEX-RN® for licensure as a registered nurse.
RN to BSN Program
- An overall grade point average of 2.0 (“C”) or higher for all college-level work including work transferred to UVA Wise, and 2.3 (“C+”) or higher on all work attempted at the College;
- A grade point average of 2.7 (“B-“) or higher in the nursing major; and
- Completion of upper division nursing courses.
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