Undergraduate Program
Nursing is a rapidly changing, ever-important profession. Today's nurse must have a strong academic background, balanced with deep, nurturing values, to deliver quality healthcare and shape the future of the profession. Today's nurse understands the importance of developing partnerships within the community to provide health care to its constituents. Today's nurse must understand individuals' cultural and genetic differences. Today's nurse must also understand the interdisciplinary nature of the modern health care team and learn to work effectively within the team environment. Old Dominion University's Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is the program for today's nurse.
BSN Career Paths
Patients, family and community are a nurse's first priority. However, new nursing career paths are opening in order to keep pace with change, developing treatments, and patient care. The bachelor's program prepares highly competent nurses with strong theoretical foundations and excellent clinical practice skills, ready for entry-level professional careers in acute care, ambulatory care, rehabilitation, home, and community settings. Graduates are also prepared for progression to positions that require beginning administrative and research skills, and are prepared for graduate study.
BSN Tracks
The School of Nursing offers a BSN in two tracks: pre-licensure, and post-licensure.
Pre-licensure is designed for students who want to obtain a bachelor's degree and then become eligible to take the NCLEX-RN for licensure as a registered nurse (RN). It's ideal for students from a variety of educational backgrounds: high school graduates, those with associate's degrees, bachelor's degrees in fields other than nursing, and military and civilians who are making career changes. During the challenging six semester academic program in the major, students participate in classes, laboratory experiences and clinical experiences under the guidance of highly competent qualified faculty.
Nursing Major at ODU from Morgan Morrison on Vimeo.
Nursing Bachelor of Science in Nursing
(BSN)Janice Hawkins, Nursing Adviser
I'm Janice Hawkins, and I advise students who are in the Nursing major. I advise students that have already been accepted into the program and are registering for upper division Nursing classes.
Why do students choose to major in Nursing?
I think students choose nursing for a lot of reasons including the fact that some students are called to work in an industry to serve others, but also Nursing is one of those fortunate degrees that offers job security usually and Nursing also offers a pretty comfortable starting salary.
What are some common careers students might purse with a major in Nursing?
There are many careers in Nursing, obviously the most common one that people think of are the nurse working in the hospital setting and often our students as new graduates do start off in that setting, but as they move into their career, they can change over and over again without ever actually leaving the field of Nursing. Nurses work in homes, we work for the military, we work for government agencies, we work for non-government organizations, we work in the missionary fields, sometimes we are campus nurses, we work in factories as occupational health nurses. I like to tell students that are thinking about Nursing that really with a Nursing degree you can do any career but with other degrees, you can't be a nurse. So it's a good place to start if you want to manage a business, you can do that as a nurse, if you want to be a hospital nurse, you can do that as a nurse.
What opportunities can students take advantage of as a Nursing major?
In the Nursing major we do offer Honors program so students can apply for and be accepted into the Honors program for our major. We also have the Student Nurses Association that is a student-run organization for professional development. We also offer a study-abroad trip. I have taken students to El Salvador and to Haiti in the past and that gives student the opportunity to study abroad as a medical mission. In the summertime, local hospitals offer paid externships for students. Those are competitive, but students that apply for the externships can also use that for elective credit that would fulfill a degree requirement for Nursing.
What should students be aware of should they choose to major in Nursing?
Students in the pre-Nursing major should be very aware that they need to make good grades right up front. Nursing is an extremely competitive major and after your freshman year and your first semester of freshman classes, you apply to the Nursing program. To be competitive, historically you need at least a 3.5 GPA to get picked up for the program. The past two years it's been even higher than that. The applicant pool does change from year to year but we do anticipate for the next several years that it will remain very competitive. So you've got to make good grades in some extremely tough classes like anatomy, physiology, chemistry, micro. Students that do well in math and science classes typically do well in our program but I do encourage all students to have a Plan B since, selection is so, is so competitive. One class that Health Sciences offers is University 101 taught by the pre-Nursing advisor, Sandra Breeden. This class allows pre-nursing students to be walked through the steps of what the major expects and how to apply for the program and things like that. So if you have room in your schedule, that might be a class that you want to consider taking as a freshman. You also need to know that in the Nursing major that scheduling can be very cumbersome. You might be in Clinical for a 2-credit class 8 hours a day instead of the normal 2 hours a week that a 2-credit course would hold. So Nursing is a very, very busy major, very busy to schedule around.
How do students apply to the Nursing major?
Students are advised in the Health Sciences pre-Nursing advising office their first semester at ODU. After the completion of that semester once grades are posted, they complete the Nursing supplemental application that you can find on our website and they submit that by February 1st. That is a firm deadline so be sure that you get that in on time and you attach copies of all transcripts from ODU or previous college attended. Notifications will be sent out on April 1 to let you know if you've been picked up. Transfer students who have completed all prerequisites would apply directly to the program with the same supplemental Nursing application. That will come to me and if you're selected for the program then your first advising appointment at ODU will be with me. You can apply to the program before you finish all prerequisites, you just need to be able get them done before fall classes begin. Students who have questions about the Nursing curriculum or specific Nursing classes can contact me. My office number is 683-5245. Pre-Nursing questions or questions about prerequisite classes before you get to your Nursing classes can still go through the pre-Nursing advising office. That number is 683-5137.
Post-licensure is the track for those who are already licensed as an RN and who want to advance their career by earning a BSN. Students may attend classes on Old Dominion's main campus in Norfolk, Va., or may choose one of several distance learning options. The undergraduate program has been successfully delivering quality nursing education to RNs at a distance since 1987.
The BSN program at Old Dominion University attracts bright men and women from many walks of life. If you want to accept a challenge, are ready to maximize your potential and become a nurse for the 21st century, come join us!
Kay L. Palmer, MSN, RN, CRRN
Undergraduate Program Director
School of Nursing