“Clark State and Wittenberg’s collaboration directly benefits students and the health care community and represents a strong community partnership between workforce development and higher educational institutions,” said Clark State President Dr. Jo Alice Blondin in a news release.
Students who enroll in the program would be admitted to Wittenberg and take general education courses the first year. During the second and third years, students would take clinical classes at Clark State and receive their Associate’s degree.
Classes would then be offered for the final year of the program at Wittenberg and students would receive their Bachelor’s degree upon completion of the coursework.
Clark State will hold 25 seats for Wittenberg students.
The program comes as the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2010 called for increasing the number of nurses with Bachelor’s degrees in the workforce from 50 to 80 percent by 2020 and doubling the population of nurses with doctorates.
“The Nursing Pathway Program is the first in Ohio to provide a seamless transition,” said Dala DeWitt, RN program director at Clark State – Springfield Regional School of Nursing. “This program that we’re doing with Wittenberg supports the IOM initiative. We’re the first ones in Ohio to have this seamless transition.”
Students have already shown interest in the program, prior to its approval by the state. Several Wittenberg students will begin classes at Clark State this summer and then enter the nursing program in this coming fall.
Elizabeth Sorensen, Wittenberg University professor and director of nursing, said students interested in studying nursing at other schools have to wait until their sophomore year to apply to the nursing program. They must complete two years of general education before they learn if they have been accepted into the program.
But with Pathways, students can apply for the BSN program at the end of their first freshman semester and will know if they’ve been selected before their second semester.
“The Nursing Pathway Program empowers students and prepares them to be top-notch professional health care practitioners,” she said.
DeWitt said the program will increase the education level of nurses working in Clark County and surrounding counties and will also save nursing students tuition costs.
She added that the BSN degree will increase career opportunities for nursing students.
“Most generally, positions in nursing leadership or management, a minimum requirement would be a BSN. So it would open a lot of doors to advance that,” DeWitt said.
For more information on the Nursing Pathway Program or to schedule a visit, contact Sorensen at 937-327-7012 or sce@wittenberg.edu.
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