SALISBURY — Catawba College students interested in pursuing careers in nursing will find a bachelor of science in nursing pre-licensure program among new academic offerings in the fall. The N.C. Board of Nursing unanimously approved the new program at its May 12 meeting.

As many as 50 students will be allowed in the BSN program, according to Nursing Department Chairwoman Racquel Ingram.

Bailey Woodie of Salisbury, a rising junior at Catawba, is one of the students who will enter the BSN program.

“The opportunity to pursue my nursing education at Catawba is exciting, Woodie said. “I began my college years as a biology major anticipating the beginning of Catawba’s nursing school. Dr. Ingram has been so helpful with transitioning from biology to the nursing program. I look forward to the education I will receive and the doors that it will open for me.”

Prospective students to the pre-licensure program must complete a nursing application and a health assessment form available online at www.catawba.edu/bsnPL.

The BSN program follows Catawba College’s initial foray into nursing, an RN to BSN program launched this spring in the School of Evening and Graduate Studies. That original program offering, which will continue, offered registered nurses who wanted to pursue a four-year baccalaureate degree the opportunity to do so using a flexible block format.

The new program will use a state-of-the-art lab with simulation mannequins for hands-on training of nursing students. These sims, as they are called, teach nursing students how to properly assess and monitor patient vital signs. The program will also rely heavily on experiential learning opportunities afforded Catawba nursing students thanks to partnerships with local medical facilities and health care providers.

“We prepare nurse generalists, and we want them to be able to meet or exceed all of the nursing outcomes that are required by American Association of Colleges of Nursing baccalaureate essentials,” Ingram said. “Our students may decide to specialize in one area of clinical nursing practice after they graduate, but we give them a broad variety of experiences to meet complex health care needs of 21st century patients across the lifespan.”

In addition to Ingram, Vivian Stamps is a nursing instructor in the program. Theressa Parks is the department’s administrative assistant.

The mission of the program reads: “The Catawba College Department of Nursing seeks to prepare competent, diverse nurse professionals to meet the holistic health care needs of a culturally diverse society; using an interdisciplinary approach to blend the knowledge and competencies of liberal studies, and evidence-based practice healthcare models to embrace nursing education, nursing practice, critical thinking, scholarship and service.”

For more information, call Ingram at 704-645-4508 or visit www.catawba.edu/nursing.