New Fast-Track Path to Nursing Degree Announced
December 5, 2018
Hudson Valley Community College will roll out a new fast-track option for its associate degree in Nursing this summer.
Recently approved by the State University of New York, the One Year Advanced Placement Nursing option will allow eligible students to begin the Nursing program in the summer, condensing two core clinical nursing courses in the first term. Successful students will complete their studies the following spring.
“This new option meets the needs of our students as well as the needs of the community by providing an option for students who have already completed significant college credit,” said the college’s Dean of Health Sciences Dr. Carol Bosco.
The college plans to allow nine students to begin in the summer of 2019 but hopes to increase that number in subsequent years. The focus will be on admitting students who already have earned a bachelor’s degree in another field but who are seeking a career in nursing.
“There has been a recent influx of students with existing degrees, significant college credit or military experience who are applying to our Nursing A.A.S. program. Since they already have many of the prerequisite courses completed, we were looking to provide these students with an option to complete the program in fewer than the two calendar years currently required,” said Department Chairperson Marty Desmond.
This one-year Advanced Placement program is fairly unique in New York State, according to Bosco, with only one other associate degree-granting program in the state offering a similar condensed option.
For more than five decades, the college’s Nursing program has built a reputation for quality and excellence in graduate outcomes. This year, 100 percent of program graduates passed the NCLEX Registered Nurse licensing exam, compared to an 88 percent pass rate nationwide and 87 percent pass rate in New York. The program is fully accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing.
According to the Center for Health Workforce Studies, the number of RNs needed in New York State is expected to increase 6 percent between 2015 and 2025, with the greatest need in residential and long term care facilities.
As the Nursing Department begins taking applications for this new option, it also will be expanding and updating its footprint in the college’s Fitzgibbons Health Technologies Center. The college will be expanding and upgrading several labs. Improvements will include expanded lab space, additional patient care rooms, a student study center, a medication administration room, simulation equipment, an Anatomage table and a PC-equipped computer room.