Nursing Program at LU: The Plan
Issue date: 4/29/09 Section: News
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Rotunda Reporter
On February 2, 2009, Longwood University sent out a press release announcing a new Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program to begin in the fall of 2009. Since this program was announced, the Longwood administration has been working diligently to staff this new program and to spread the word about what the nursing program will be like for accepted students.
Dr. Wayne McWee, vice president of academic affairs, said, "We have made an offer for a department chair and are waiting to hear back from the candidate." He also said, "We are moving forward in a three-year-period to hire as many as seven professors in the department, including the department chair." McWee said there will be part-time people working with the programs in addition to those seven professors.
Dr. Jean Sorrells-Jones, project director for the nursing program, said, "Because of the design of the curriculum, the first three semesters are primarily sciences and general education courses which will be taught by existing Longwood faculty. The nursing faculty will be recruited in a staggered manner from now until 2012. The first two full-time nursing faculty will be arriving in fall 2009 semester, and the final two or three will come in 2012."
The target is that 35 students will be admitted each fall and there will be 120 students in the program when the full four years are functioning. Freshman Kaitlyn Stolte said, "I am currently on the waiting list for the program but hope to be accepted so that I can pursue a career as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner." Since the program only accepts approximately 35 students each fall, it is already a very competitive program to get into at Longwood.
Longwood's nursing program will be held on the second floor of the Stevens building. Kristin Windon, assistant project director, said, "Stevens is under renovation. Students will not be in a nursing class with a laboratory component until fall 2010. The technology is extreme. We will need computers, high-tech audio visual equipment, human patient simulators, skills trainers, patient mannequins, hospital beds, patient supplies and equipment, and all of the equipment that makes the lab or simulation area feel like a hospital room or clinical setting."
Not only will the nursing students be studying in the Stevens building, they will also have clinical experiences at many healthcare agencies across the area. Sorrells-Jones said, "It is our goal to assure that the nursing students experience clinical nursing in a wide range of sites, so they understand the spectrum of health services from home, community, and hospital, urban and rural." She also said, "We will be collaborating with many regional healthcare providers, including Southside Community Hospital, the two Centra hospitals in Lynchburg, Piedmont Geriatric Hospital in Burkeville, community-based care providers like Crossroads Community Services Board, Piedmont Health District, The Woodland, and others." In addition, "Students will also have selected clinical experiences in schools, including Prince Edward and Cumberland County schools, Hampden-Sydney College, and Longwood's own Health and Wellness Center," Sorrells-Jones said.
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