New Path to Nursing

Washington College students who want to pursue a degree in nursing have a new option thanks to a strategic partnership with Johns Hopkins University’s Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) Entry into Nursing Program. With an emphasis on emerging areas of need and health care leadership, the program offers students an accelerated path to a wide array of patient-care careers.

“This Johns Hopkins program is designed for students who have majored in a non-nursing discipline as an undergraduate and decide to pursue nursing after they complete their undergraduate degree,” says Patrice DiQuinzio, Dean and Provost of the College. “Given that this program focuses on leadership and is inclusive of the humanities and public health, it’s a wonderful fit for Washington College and our students.”

The five-semester Entry Into Nursing Program “prepares students to be top patient-care nurses who have unlimited choices after graduation by emphasizing leadership, global impact, quality and safety, evidence-based practice, and inter-professional education,” says Cathy Wilson, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Director of Admissions. Students “will learn from a framework that integrates the humanities, public health, and physical and organizational sciences into nursing practice.” Students graduate with a master of science in nursing and are prepared to take the nursing licensing exam to become an RN, or to continue studies toward an advanced degree.

The new partnership complements Washington College’s current nursing program, which offers a dual-degree option with the University of Maryland School of Nursing, through which students spend three years at WC, then two years at UMD, earning a bachelor’s degree from WC and a BS in nursing from UMD in five years. Students may also complete a traditional four-year bachelor’s degree in a major of their choice while completing their pre-nursing prerequisite courses.

For the Johns Hopkins MSN Entry Into Nursing program, WC students don’t need to major in biology or psychology as they do in the dual-degree bachelor’s program with UMD, but they must have a cumulative GPA of 3.2 and have completed several specific courses with a B or better to be considered for admission. Johns Hopkins will provide the College with an advisor to meet with interested WC students to help them during the admissions process, and scholarships and financial aid are available.

“Not everybody knows they want to get into nursing until later in their undergraduate career,” says Jodi Olson, Director of Pre-Health Professions Programs, who helped shepherd the new partnership. “This program gives those students an excellent post-graduate option.”