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November 6, 2012
Nicholls State University will add another curriculum to its list of eight master’s degrees programs when it begins offering a master’s of science in nursing next spring.
“If you talk to people in the health care community, you keep hearing board members and administrators talking about the need for nursing personnel to go that next level of opportunity,” university president Dr. Stephen Hulbert said in a printed statement. “They need the master’s degree. We have been sending hundreds of individuals out of state electronically at high cost, and many simply out of state, to public institutions to get that opportunity. Now we’re going to do it right here at Nicholls.”
Hulbert said the need for such an advanced program is clear, given that the majority of the nurses working in the Bayou Region have graduated from Nicholls.
“We are very excited to be able to offer this level of nursing education to students in the Nicholls service area,” said Dr. Sue Westbrook, dean of the College of Nursing and Allied Health, in a printed statement. “We’ve worked toward this goal for quite a while. This is an historical time for our college.”
The program, which recently received final approval from the Louisiana State Board of Nursing, will be managed by the College of Nursing and Allied Health. The curriculum will be a division of the state’s Intercollegiate Consortium for a Master of Science in Nursing. The program will be taught online by the consortium’s member institutions, including Southeastern Louisiana University, McNeese State University and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
“This online program will help those who have full time families and full time jobs,” said Bachelor of Science in nursing program department head and assistant professor of nursing Rebecca Lyons. “Nicholls is a regional university, and this is who we serve. This is an exciting and historical time for Nicholls. This will help people stay local and not leave the area or the state, and their earning potential will also be increased. It will also keep money in the state and boost the local economy. A lot of students are taking classes online through out-of-state colleges.”
As members of the consortium, the four universities will share talent and faculty.
“There are not many consortiums in the country,” said department of nursing graduate coordinator Tanya Schreiber. “This is historical for Nicholls and the area. This is the next level of progression for the school’s nursing program. The area will have a highly educated workforce at its bedside. That is part of the value of growing.”
Like Lyons, who holds a four-year nursing degree from Nicholls, Schreiber is also a graduate of the school’s nursing program.
“I received my associate in nursing from Nicholls, before the school began offering the BSN in 1982,” Schreiber said. “We had 15 students in my graduating class, and now we graduate about 60 BSN students each semester. Right now, the department has 360 clinical students in the nursing program, and we have 28 faculty members.”
Schreiber has already fielded about 50 phone calls from prospective students for the master’s program, many of whom are graduates of the school’s BSN program.
“All the response from the callers has been positive, and they are glad it is happening,” Schreiber said. “Many are coming back to get their master’s at their alma mater. That speaks about the quality of education here. Students know what they got here. We are here to serve nurses in the Bayou Region. We have been working on this master’s program for five or six years.”
Students pursuing their nursing master’s will have four concentrations to choose from: family nurse practitioner, family psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner, nursing educator or nursing executive.
“The majority of those interested in coming here for their master’s want to pursue the nurse practitioners concentration,” Schreiber said. “Nurse education concentration is also critical because it will help to build our faculty. We will need nurses to teach. This master’s program is a feather in our cap.”
Nicholls State University assistant professor of nursing Kim Dozar lectures during a pediatrics. The university will being offering a master’s of nursing degree next spring.
