Pre-Nursing Studies

Contemporary nursing is a demanding multifaceted calling that utilizes a wide variety of personal characteristics such as compassion, discernment in understanding complex human physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs. Covenant provides two main pathways into a nursing vocation (a helpful resource on the web that gives a brief description of a variety of nursing education options is www.allnursingschools.com/faqs/progtypes.php). Students may consider accelerated second degree Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) programs after completing their BA at Covenant with appropriate prerequisites. Alternatively, students may pursue a calling as a nurse practitioner by entering a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program. As nurse practitioners play an increasing role in delivering primary care as well as care in a variety of specialties, deeply and broadly educated nurses will be increasingly in demand. “Direct entry” MSN programs accept well qualified students who have majored in areas other than nursing in their undergraduate programs, and who have completed a defined set of prerequisite courses. “Direct entry” MSN programs are typically offered in an accelerated format of 2-2.5 years. Second degree BSN programs typically take between 10-16 months to complete. See http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Media/FactSheets/AcceleratedProg.htm for descriptions and a current list of institutions offering BSN and direct entry MSN  programs. A biology major in the Health professions is a path that allows capable students to take full advantage of the opportunities for Christian academic development at Covenant as well as to complete prerequisite coursework that keeps a wide variety of career options in the health professions open.  However, pre-nursing students need not be biology majors- pre-nursing students may pursue any major, as long as the prescribed prerequisite courses are completed. Prerequisite courses vary for different programs but typically include courses in statistics, human anatomy and physiology, microbiology, developmental psychology, chemistry and nutrition (all of which are offered at Covenant).