With increasing prestige and recognition, the nursing department has been awarded for its recent success. In 2009, the first class of students in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Northwestern graduated and had a success rate of 100% with their board exams. These NW graduates are now working in hospitals across the U.S. Sanford Health is recognizing this achievement with a $5,000 donation for nursing scholarships. This endowment will allow NW to offer $1,000 Sanford Nursing Scholarships to five students in the B.S.N. program for the spring 2011 semester.
Sanford Health, based in Sioux Falls, S.D., and Fargo, N.D., is the largest rural non-profit healthcare system in the U.S. It consists of 111 clinics, 30 hospitals and 12 nursing homes. The nursing program does collaborative work with the Orange City Area hospital. NW was acknowledged by Sanford Health through the hospital’s affiliation with the health care system and received recognition because of the quality of the nursing program.
“We are grateful to Sanford Health for their investment in our nursing program,” said president Greg Christy. “This scholarship support will help educate nursing students who are prepared to leave Northwestern committed to Jesus’s healing ministry as they promote, restore and maintain the holistic health of children and adults in a variety of settings.”
Mike Daly, director of public affairs for the Sioux Falls region of Sanford Health, said, “We’ve been impressed with Northwestern College’s B.S.N. program and the success of their graduates, and we want to make sure the program continues to be successful. We plan to make a long-term commitment to the success of the nursing program.”
The B.S.N. program at NW was developed by Dr. Ruth Daumer. She previously taught pre-nursing classes at NW and was later hired to start a nursing program in 2005. Since then the program has received full credit from the Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Within five years of when the program started, NW’s department of nursing received full approval from the Iowa Board of Nursing.
The program had eight graduates from 2009, 13 from 2010 and is anticipating 21 seniors to graduate this upcoming spring. “Collectively the classes of 2009 and 2010 had a 95% success rate of passing boards,” said Mrs. Pamela Reints, the departmental assistant to the nursing department.
The nursing program currently has 104 students which include all pre-nursing and nursing students. “The nursing department hopes to keep increasing in the number of graduates,” said Reints.
“The success of the nursing program is a combination of the quality students and faculty,” said Reints. “You need both in order to make the program successful.”
The nursing department hopes to continue to attract quality students as well as have graduates pass their board exams and working in hospitals across the U.S. and world. The NW nursing program strives for students to become healthcare professionals dedicated to the pursuit of shalom—individual, family and community health, wholeness and peace from a Biblical perspective.
