The magazine of Montclair State University Spring 2016

Montclair State has established a new School of Nursing to meet the growing demand for highly qualified nurses. Beginning in September 2016, the new School will offer a Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN) degree program. A full BSN program will begin in fall 2017, followed by an MSN, a five-year BSN-MSN and a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

“The need for qualified nurses is strong and is not expected to lessen in the foreseeable future,” says Frederick Bonato, associate provost for academic affairs. “The new School will provide a nursing education that addresses current and future health care needs – from changes in how health care is delivered to where nursing is practiced. Technological advances will require us to be adaptive, nimble and furnished with state-of-the-art equipment. We are fully prepared to do that.”

In its 2010 Report on the Future of Nursing, the Institute of Medicine recommended that by 2020, at least 80 percent of practicing nurses should have a bachelor’s degree.

The School’s RN to BSN program gives registered nurses who earned associate degrees in nursing, or who graduated from a nursing diploma program, the opportunity to earn their bachelor’s degrees from Montclair State.

Partridge Hall is currently being transformed into a state-of-the-art home for the new School. The renovated facility will house mediated classrooms and specialized spaces, including a nursing skills lab, an anatomy lab, high-fidelity simulation labs outfitted with computer-interfaced mannequins, a home care lab, a mock quarantine room and computer labs.