Enhanced Partnership With Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center To Help NU Expand Nursing Program
With interest in Niagara University’s nursing programsbooming, the institution is turning to one of its longtime partners to help it increase enrollment by offering additional clinical placements for accelerated students.
Beginning this summer, students in NU’s accelerated B.S. program in nursing will have greater access to clinical rotations in the behavioral health unit at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center. In addition, the university’s students will be granted clinical opportunities in the area of community health when Memorial’s new Golisano Center for Community Health Center opens next year. This is especially important with the current national emphasis on wellness, prevention and primary care.
Identifying clinical rotations for this unique group of students – who have already earned a bachelor’s degree (or higher) in another major from an accredited university/college – had been a pressure point for the university, according to Fran Crosby, Ed.D., program director.
Due to the partnership, Niagara University expects to be able to increase capacity in its accelerated nursing cohort by 50 percent, from 20 students this year to 30 in 2016. NU received 83 applications for the program last fall.