Southwestern Oregon University Center

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Earn Your Degree at Home

Programs

• RN/BS - Nursing 

Nursing

Oregon Health and Science University's School of Nursing offers its entire baccalaureate completion program for registered nurses online. The program is called R.N./B.S.-Online and does not replace the school's ongoing courses for R.N.s, but rather represents a computer-mediated fully distance-delivered approach for rural R.N.s. 

Students admitted into the R.N./B.S.-Online program will be provided with computers for home use while they are in the program. Instruction and ongoing support will be provided also so the students can use their computers to communicate with their instructors and each other, order their textbooks, connect with library and web resources, turn in assignments -- all the things that a traditional student would do in person on campus. 

To qualify for the program, students must hold a registered nurse's license in Oregon and live at least 75 miles from any of the OHSU School of Nursing campuses (Ashland, Klamath Falls, LaGrande or Portland). R.N.s interested in applying for the R.N./B.S.-Online program can contact the School of Nursing at (503) 494-7725 or email proginfo@ohsu.edu. 

Like their on-campus counterparts, R.N.s in the R.N./B.S.-Online program will have to complete all the nursing and general education courses OHSU requires for a bachelor's degree in nursing. Program advisers will assist students in identifying required non-nursing courses like writing and statistics that they can take through local community colleges or by distance from any accredited school. Students will be expected to complete OHSU's 11 required nursing courses, two a term, over a period of five terms, and finish up in summer with their final clinical practice course. 

Experience counts in the OHSU program, therefore students can challenge courses for which they have met the learning goals through prior work and life experience. In addition, R.N.s in the program can tailor their courses to focus on one particular aspect of nursing they may be especially interested in. 

For the two clinical courses required in the program, faculty will work with students and health care agencies in their local communities to locate preceptors with whom the students can work. "We want rural R.N.s to be able to stay in the communities where they are currently working and where their service is greatly needed--that's why we want to do a fully distance-delivered program. Our hope is that three years
from now, the R.N./B.S.-Online program will allow us to reach a lot more rural R.N.s.," said Dzurec. 

For more information on the R.N./B.S.-Online program, contact Lorraine Cook, R.N./B.S.-Online Project Manger, at (541) 552-6736, email nursing@sou.edu.

© Southwestern Oregon University Center 2005