Graduate program expanding

By Charleston Southern on July 22, 2009 - 8:33 pm in CSU News / no comments

By 2010, it is speculated there will be a shortage of 1,000,000 nurses in the U.S. Compounding this problem is the nursing faculty shortage. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of schools responding to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) survey stated they turned away qualified applicants for their undergraduate nursing programs due to the faculty shortage.

CSU’s School of Nursing has been unable to accept all qualified applicants to our BSN program consistently over the past three years due to faculty shortage. In response to this problem, an MSN degree in nursing education has been developed to prepare nurses to teach at a faculty level in nursing programs as well as to accept staff and patient educator positions within hospital and clinic settings. This program will target BSN nurses as well as RN nurses who would receive content from the BSN curriculum and accelerate into the MSN nurse educator content. The curriculum is modeled after the National League for Nursing, NLN, criteria for certification as a nurse educator, CNE. Students of this program will complete a teaching practicum through our existing BSN program that would provide teaching assistance to our nursing faculty and expert mentoring to the students.

The MSN program at CSU uses a national cohort model. Courses are taught in a five-week, online format so that students are not focusing on more than one course at a time. Another unique feature of the program is the integration of faith throughout the curriculum as well as the inclusion of two courses that will teach the students how to integrate faith into nursing curricula and to serve as Christian leaders in health care. It is possible to complete the program in 16 months, and the online program offers 24/7 technical support.

For more information contact: Ashley Millwood, graduate enrollment counselor, at 843-863-5501 or amillwood@csuniv.edu or Alison Harrison, graduate enrollment counselor, at 843-863-7534 or aharrison@csuniv.edu.

Tags: Dr. Tara Hulsey School of Nursing