- Westminster University's undergraduate nursing program is structured to allow students to graduate in three years.
- Nursing students will expedite their studies by remaining in class during the summer.
- Westminster's nursing program is designed to graduate students with skills in both the "art" and "science" of the profession.
For Westminster University nursing students, summer breaks can wait.
The Salt Lake City school’s Bachelor of Science nursing program is now structured to allow students to graduate into the high-demand profession in three years.
And while “three-years-to-a-bachelor’s-degree” programs recently introduced at some Utah universities involve fewer credit hours, the core requirements for Westminster nursing students are not changing.
The timeline to the nursing degree is simply shorter because it’s now a year-round program. Westminster nursing students will continue their studies through the summer.
“The program allows for students to complete the baccalaureate nursing program, after they have finished their prerequisites, in four semesters that are done in sequence — rather than taking off a summer semester and then coming back in the fall,” Westminster’s School of Nursing & Health Sciences Dean Sheryl Steadman told the Deseret News.
“Students have the ability to get out of the nursing program in four semesters because they aren’t taking the summer off.”
That accelerated timeframe, added Associate Dean Jon Worthen, “gives us the ability to compress that time and actually have students out in the workforce sooner.”
Steadman emphasized that Westminster’s accelerated three-year degree program demands the same academic and practical rigor and breadth as before.
“The credit hours and the curricula,” she said, “are exactly the same.
Meanwhile, Westminster health care students interested in graduate programs can also receive a Master of Science in nursing-family nurse practitioner and doctor of nursing practice on an accelerated timeline.
After satisfying the liberal arts “WCore” courses required of all Westminster undergraduate students, degree-seeking nursing students fulfill a four-semester curriculum with courses developed to enhance learning “and reinforce principles and concepts learned in the classroom, labs and clinical experience,” according to the program’s website.
Helping meet Utah’s dynamic demand for skilled nurses
Currently, said Steadman, there is not a nursing shortage in Utah — at least outside of rural communities.
But as a higher education institution that’s been operating for 150 years, she added, Westminster University is committed to help provide Utah with the nurses it needs at any moment.
“By teaching through the summer — rather than giving the students a summer off — it allows students to get out into the community on a quicker basis and to fill those (nursing) needs, whatever those might be at that time.”
Westminster’s Bachelor of Science nursing program is a generalist program, added Steadman. “So the experiences that students have throughout their education allows them opportunities to see various specialties of nursing that helps them form a mindset for what it is that they might want to do.”
A nursing student’s senior year focuses on specialized clinical experiences.
“If a student nurse wants to, say, look at operating room nursing or ICU nursing or the emergency room nursing, we work with our clinical sites to provide opportunities for the student to be placed that last semester in those areas, so that student gets a feel for what it’s like.”
The opportunities for such specialized clinical opportunities go beyond on-the-job training. “It also gives the corporations and the managers of these units opportunities to see our students … and potentially offer them positions in those facilities,” said Steadman.
The dean emphasized the symbiotic connection between Westminster’s nursing program and Utah’s nursing industry.
“Ninety-five percent of our students,” said Steadman, “remain in the state of Utah.”
Worthen added that Westminster’s local clinical partners appreciate early access to graduates. “They are very excited to have our students out sooner.”
Westminster’s teaching-driven nursing faculty
Westminster’s nursing program is developed to foster faculty-student discussion, hands-on learning, essential clinical decision-making and critical thinking.
Students, according to the program, utilize modern facilities in the school’s Nursing Skills and Simulation Lab such as high-fidelity mannequins to develop essential patient care skills.
The school’s nursing professors function as teachers, facilitators and mentors. Every nursing student is assigned a faculty adviser who helps blaze his or her path to clinical and academic success.
And for eligible high school students who have decided to pursue a nursing career and gain early entry into the workforce, the program offers direct-entry — or early admit — admissions.
Preparing for Utah’s nursing ranks
Sabrina Alff is a Westminster student preparing to finish her nursing degree even while serving as the president of the school’s student nursing club.
A native of the Los Angeles area, she earned a biology degree at Westminster University before deciding to return to her alma mater to pursue nursing.
She was drawn to the school’s nursing program, in part, because of its small student-teacher ratio. Meanwhile, her favorite features of Westminster’s nursing program are the clinical lab experiences.
“We get to practice full-on head-to-toe assessments on each other, and then practice that eventually in clinical rotation. … We’re practicing very specific skills that we will be applying to our nursing roles.”
The daughter of a physician’s assistant, Alff said she’s enjoyed a lifelong love for medicine. Now her academic/professional development feeds her a passion for patient care.
“I loved being able to be with my patients,” she said. “and get to know them and help them as much as I can administering medication and just being able to comfort them, educate them, and advocate for them.”
Post-graduation, Alff plans to stay and will likely apply for Westminster’s nurse practitioner program.
