Jefferson College of Nursing Slated to Offer BSN Program at Abington-Dixon Campus in Willow Grove
PHILADELPHIA AND WILLOW GROVE, PA (PRWEB) December 10, 2015 -- The leadership of Jefferson College of Nursing and Abington Memorial Hospital’s Dixon School of Nursing are planning to open a second Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program at the Abington-Dixon Campus in Willow Grove, pending approval by the Pennsylvania Board of Nursing. This second campus will open after the closure of the diploma program at the Abington Memorial Hospital Dixon School of Nursing.
The decision to transition the diploma program to a BSN program was the result of a thoughtful and deliberate process involving an integration team, which included nursing leaders from Abington and Jefferson. The Jefferson College of Nursing will operate the proposed BSN program as an additional location at the Abington-Dixon campus located at the Abington Health Center-Willow Grove, appealing to prospective students in the northern suburbs of Philadelphia. The BSN program is slated to begin in fall 2017 after the graduation of Dixon’s current evening/weekend class.
Debby Hines, DNP, director of Nursing Education and chair of the Abington Memorial Hospital Dixon School of Nursing says, “Our longstanding tradition of educating nurses to care for our community is transitioning into the next chapter for the Dixon School.” Hines is a graduate of both the Dixon School of Nursing and the Jefferson College of Nursing.
The Dixon School of Nursing has graduated more than 4,000 nurses who have served the community and beyond as leaders, educators, advance practice nurses, authors and bedside nurses, many of whom went on to earn their BSN and other advanced degrees. A number of students benefited from the generosity of many donors, including the Dixon family, the School’s namesake. Edith Robb Dixon, and her late husband, Fitz Eugene Dixon, Jr., generously contributed to the school and its scholarship program. The School is named for Mr. Dixon’s late mother, Eleanor Widener Dixon, and his wife Edith. The second Jefferson College of Nursing campus will retain their name and will be referred to as the Abington-Dixon Campus.
Research supports educating and employing BSN-prepared nurses. Many acute care hospitals are moving to an all-BSN model, especially those seeking or maintaining Magnet status, the designation granted by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). For their approval, the ANCC requires organizations to define a goal to achieve 80 percent staffing by BSN-prepared nurses within the organization by 2020. Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Abington Hospital-Jefferson Health are Magnet hospitals and have established goals to achieve this BSN imperative through educational support and new hire mandates.
“A BSN can help create a variety of career paths for nurses,” said Beth Ann Swan, PhD, CRNP, dean and professor, Thomas Jefferson University’s Jefferson College of Nursing. “BSN degrees can prepare nurses for jobs beyond hospital walls, including careers in management, outpatient nursing, transitional care, community health and clinical instruction.”
This transition will help meet the growing demand for BSN-prepared nurses. Programs to be offered at the Abington-Dixon campus are: day, evening/weekend, and an accelerated day program for those with a bachelor’s degree in another field. Students will apply to the Jefferson College of Nursing and indicate if they wish to attend the Philadelphia or Abington- Dixon Campus.
“With the addition of a second location at the Abington-Dixon campus, we anticipate being able to accommodate a larger pool of students interested in earning a BSN, especially prospective students in the Northern suburbs of Philadelphia,” said Swan. In addition to a BSN program, at the Center City campus, the Jefferson College of Nursing also offers full-time and part-time master’s programs and a doctoral program in Nursing.
“We take pride in our past and are optimistic about the future as we transition our campus to a second location for the Jefferson College of Nursing,” said Hines. “This is an exciting time for all of us as we meet the needs of those who desire a career in nursing.”
A plan is in place to incrementally accommodate an additional 200 students, both to ensure the proper allocation of resources and to deliver the quality education for which the Jefferson College of Nursing is recognized. Over time, between the Abington-Dixon Campus and the location in Philadelphia, the Jefferson College of Nursing will seat 600 BSN students.
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About the Jefferson College of Nursing
The Jefferson College of Nursing has graduated more than 9,000 alumni since it opened its doors in 1891. Its faculty members are continuously exploring and adopting new technologies as teaching tools to support and advance how nursing students learn. For example, in 2011 Jefferson became the first college in the U.S. to integrate the Apple® iPad2 into its classrooms, simulation labs and clinical settings at the point of care.
Jefferson College of Nursing is an integral part of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (TJUH), recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as a Magnet® hospital for quality patient care, nursing excellence, and innovations in professional nursing practice.
Faculty is comprised of outstanding clinicians and exemplary teachers, many of whom maintain a clinical practice at TJUH or elsewhere in Jefferson Health. Their commitment to the goals of the successful student is evident in the classroom and clinical settings. Equally important, the low student-to-faculty ratio fosters a nurturing environment where mentorship, shared learning, and camaraderie flourish. Jefferson Nursing graduates enter the practice world with excellent clinical skills, real-world nursing experience, and confidence in their ability to work effectively with peers and team members.
About Jefferson — Health is all we do.
Our newly formed organization, Jefferson, encompasses Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, representing our academic and clinical entities. Together, the people of Jefferson, 19,000 strong, provide the highest-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients, educate the health professionals of tomorrow, and discover new treatments and therapies that will define the future of health care.
Jefferson Health comprises five hospitals, 16 outpatient and urgent care locations, as well as physician practices and everywhere we deliver care throughout the city and suburbs across Philadelphia, Montgomery and Bucks Counties in Pa., and Camden County in New Jersey. Together, these facilities serve more than 72,000 inpatients, 239,000 emergency patients and 1.7 million outpatient visits annually. Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is the largest freestanding academic medical center in Philadelphia. Abington Hospital is the largest community teaching hospital in Montgomery or Bucks counties. Other hospitals include Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience in Center City Philadelphia; Methodist Hospital in South Philadelphia; and Abington-Lansdale Hospital in Hatfield Township.
Thomas Jefferson University enrolls more than 3,800 future physicians, scientists, nurses and healthcare professionals in the Sidney Kimmel Medical College (SKMC), Jefferson Colleges of Biomedical Sciences, Health Professions, Nursing, Pharmacy, Population Health and is home of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.
For more information and a complete listing of Jefferson services and locations, visit http://www.jefferson.edu.
Gail Benner, Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, http://www.jefferson.edu, +1 215-955-2240, [email protected]
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