NEW BRITAIN – July 10, 2008 - Aimed at helping to alleviate Connecticut’s growing shortage of health care professionals as well as providing an academic track for future leaders in the field, Central Connecticut State University will launch a new, Baccalaureate nursing program this fall.  The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration estimates that Connecticut will be short more than 11,000 nurses by 2010.  A decade later the shortfall could double, the agency predicts, leaving the state with fewer than half the nurses it needs.

CCSU is already accepting students for the semester that begins September 2, according to nursing department chairperson Associate Professor Linda Wagner. 

“As high school guidance counselors and others become more familiar with our new program we expect to see a steady influx of students,” said Dr. Wagner. 

Those freshmen will enter as pre-nursing majors and practice in a new simulation lab currently being constructed in Henry Barnard Hall.  They will have clinical rotations in the various specialty areas and affiliate with the local hospitals and health care settings in the area.  The nursing courses will run over four years and the students will graduate prepared to sit for the state Registered Nurse exam.

“CCSU’s interest in developing a Bachelor of Science in nursing program arises from our institutional mission to address workforce issues in Connecticut. It is well documented that there is a nursing shortage in the state, one that is expected to continue for some time into the future,” Wagner said.

Mitchell Sakofs, dean of the school of education and professional studies also expects the program to grow.  While the first group of students will enter and begin the program in a matter of weeks, “we should see interest (and enrollment) really start to pickup when the high schools reopen and students begin examining their potential college and career options,” Sakofs said.

Dr. Sakofs said the new program was approved by the Connecticut Department of Higher Education in June to supplement and enhance CCSU’s existing RN to BSN program, which had been established more than two decades ago and was accredited by the National League for Nursing (NLN) and later by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).  The program is fully accredited by CCNE until 2016.

"The previous program offered a baccalaureate degree only to students who were already Registered Nurses.  The new Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is designed to prepare a liberally educated person to function as a professional nurse in various roles and healthcare settings.  After completing the program graduates are expected to be professionally competent generalists in nursing who recognize the need for continued personal and professional development throughout life; with their initial degree in hand, they will possess the educational background for post-baccalaureate study in nursing,” Sakofs said.

“We are committed to providing broad access to affordable nursing education to Connecticut’s students and to graduating students who are ready to assume positions as professional nurses in the state of Connecticut,” Wagner added.

Approval for the BSN program by the Board of Governors of Higher Education was followed by similar action by the Connecticut Board of Examiners for Nursing.

Students and high school guidance professionals interested in obtaining more information about the new BSN program can call the department at 860-832-0032.

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