THIBODAUX – Having received final approval from the Louisiana State Board of Nursing, Nicholls State University will offer a Master of Science program in nursing beginning in spring 2013. Administered by the College of Nursing and Allied Health, the program will be part of the state’s Intercollegiate Consortium for a Master of Science in Nursing.
Betsy Cheramie Ayo Hall, Headquarters of the College of Nursing and Allied Health
Dr. Stephen Hulbert, university president, said the demand for such an advanced program is clear, given that eight out of 10 nurses in the Bayou Region are Nicholls graduates.
“If you talk to people in the health care community, you keep hearing board members and administrators talking about the need for nursing personnel to go that next level of opportunity,” Hulbert said during his State of the University address on Aug. 16. “They need the master’s degree. We have been sending hundreds of individuals out of state electronically at high cost, and many simply out of state, to public institutions to get that opportunity. Now we’re going to do it right here at Nicholls.”
Master’s candidates at Nicholls will have four concentrations from which to choose: family nurse practitioner, family psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner, nursing educator or nursing executive. The program will be administered online using a collaborative model whereby faculty resources are shared among the consortium’s member institutions, including Southeastern Louisiana University, McNeese State University and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
“We are very excited to be able to offer this level of nursing education to students in the Nicholls service area,” Dr. Sue Westbrook, dean of the College of Nursing and Allied Health, said. “We’ve worked toward this goal for quite a while. This is an historical time for our college.”
To learn more about the College of Nursing and Allied Health, go to nicholls.edu/cona. Details about the Intercollegiate Consortium for a Master of Science in Nursing are available at www.nursingconsortium.org.
