UVM has launched a new online nursing program and summer course for high school students interested in exploring a career in the health professions.
The Registered Nurse to Baccalaureate in Science degree completion program (RN to BS) is now offered online, giving nurses greater flexibility in juggling work and the demands of earning a bachelors degree.
Currently only 38 percent of practicing nurses in Vermont hold a Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN), a degree now recommended for all professional nurses by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, and the American Nurses’ Association. The Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing Report calls for increasing the percentage of nurses holding a BSN degree, or higher, to 80 percent by 2020.
Baccalaureate-prepared nurses enjoy expanded employment options, greater professional knowledge, increased job satisfaction, and higher earnings potential. A 2007 study published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing supports the findings that increasing the number of BSN-prepared nurses at the bedside results in better patient safety and outcomes.
The online RN to BS program is provided in partnership with the UVM College of Nursing and offered through UVM Continuing Education. One course called “Health Assessment” is offered on-campus in UVM’s state-of-the-art clinical simulation laboratory as a one-week summer intensive course. Learn more at learn.uvm.edu/rntobs.
“Exploring Anatomy and Physiology,“ is a new summer course designed specifically for high school students interested in exploring a career in the health profession as a doctor, nurse, physical therapist, athletic trainer or nutritionist. Students will tour the pathology laboratory and hospital as well as participate in clinical simulations to gain hands-on experience with technologies used to conduct surgery.
Vermont high school students can take this course tuition-free using a state-funde, dual enrollment voucher, or at half the regular in-state tuition rate. Out-of-state high school students can take this course at the in-state tuition rate. To learn about additional summer offerings for high school students in engineering, business, environmental science, and arts, visit http://www.uvm.edu/~summer/pre-college/.