OA Annual Report 2023

PM to BSN ONLINE PROGRAM PROVES INSTANT SUCCESS

By BJ Riley ’16, ’23G, Director of Marketing

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the nursing workforce is expected to grow from 3.1 million in 2021 to 3.3 million in 2031. Additionally, it is projected that over 200,000 additional openings will occur each year through 2031 because of retirements and workforce exits of nurses. “We will increase the number of professional nurses coming from SMWC by 200% with this program,”

said Marcia Miller, Ph.D., RN, dean of the division of nursing and sciences, when asked about the College’s new online program, Paramedics to Bachelor of

Science in Nursing (PM to BSN). PM to

BSN allows students with paramedic licenses to work toward their Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree while maintaining their paramedic career. Miller, who came to SMWC in January 2014, was the very first member of the nursing department and was recruited to start the nursing program that opened at SMWC in 2015. In the years prior to coming to SMWC, she had started several programs for other institutions, including an online nursing program. The SMWC nursing program grew from the initial offering of the RN to BSN program to the BSN, the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) and the Post-Master’s Family Nurse Practitioner Certificate. The BSN program each year has the highest enrollment of any major. Miller

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