School of Nursing

Message from the Director

We returned after the winter holidays and have not missed a beat. Our students are on campus and at their clinical assignments with N95s in place. We routinely test our students and campus community thanks to a supply of the BiaxNow rapid antigen screening cards from the state. This step is important in our plan to keep our students safe, and we are finding a very low positivity rate. Faculty and students are helping “get those vaccines in arms.”

Although we were disappointed to cancel the NightinGala for this year, we held a successful crowd-funding event that raised close to $30,000 to support simulation. We are hopeful that we will be able to have an in-person event in Spring 2022, so watch for updates.

We are proud of our students who continue to work hard with the goal of being the best nurses they can. The pass rate for our programs was especially gratifying since the students had not had a “normal” classroom experience in about a year. For 2020, our NCLEX pass rate was 98.63, our Nurse Practitioner pass rate was 100% for both tracks, and the Nurse Anesthesia pass rate was 85%. These new graduates are now part of the nursing workforce, and more important, our colleagues.

Most of our faculty have returned to face-to-face instruction.  Our students and faculty are supporting vaccine clinics throughout our community, are helping with mass testing events for the campus, and assisting with contact tracing. Our senior students are working with the Center for Student Wellbeing and are bringing a campaign of self-care to their fellow students. The pandemic continues to teach each of us real life lessons.

The University expects to have classes as usual in the Fall. We hope to be able to do just that. We will keep you updated on our progress.

    --Chris Smith

Christine Benz Smith, PhD, FNP-BC
Director, School of Nursing
Chief Health Affairs Officer