As Blue Mountain is starting a new academic year, the BMC nursing program is starting its search for new students. This is the first time in its history that BMC has offered a nursing degree. According to Dean of Nursing Dr. Tammie McCoy, the new “program is a bachelor of science in nursing degree.” The new facility which houses the program is “state of the art” and has stations where nurses in training can practice interacting with patients who are at all stages of life and experiencing all types of medical emergencies. Dr. McCoy states that “we have the latest technology with our simulators,” which will give our students every opportunity to become expert in their field.
Any student who wants to apply to the BMC nursing program will “do their first two years of pre-recs, get all those out of the way, and then start the nursing program, and would have two years within the nursing program.” Students can apply their sophomore year. They must have a minimum ACT of 21 and a minimum GPA of 2.5 to apply, according to Dr. McCoy.
As a Christian college, a Biblical view on nursing is an important part of the curriculum and viewpoint for all the nursing faculty. Dr. McCoy says, “the Christian perspective in nursing is very important, because each patient could be in a life-or-death situation, and we want nurses to know and to understand how to nurse from a Christian world view.” She goes on to say that “how to help individuals come into the world with dignity and to die with dignity,” is important part of nursing, especially with a Biblical perspective. More than medical classes and knowledge, this understanding put into practice is at the core of our new nursing program.
Dr. McCoy says that the nursing program will begin recruiting students from the Blue Mountain campus to join the program soon. “Our deadline for the traditional students to apply for our trac that would start in January is […] November 1st.” She also states that the program offers a “RN to BSN”, and the deadline to apply for the spring semester for this course is December 1st.
Reaching out to students from our campus who may be interested in nursing, Dr. McCoy says, “Come be with us! We are so excited, we think we have the curriculum developed in a manner that would be, not easy, […] nursing is not easy, […] but so that it would be what [a student] needed when they needed it, to be successful as a nurse. We have the facilities, we have the classrooms, we have the clinical agencies, and so we’re ready to admit those students and to welcome them here.”
