The innovative Commonwealth Nursing Program offered at several of Virginia’s Community Colleges has earned Virginia Board of Nursing approval for eight years, according to the program’s director, Dr. Barbara Laird:

This was announced at the meeting yesterday in Richmond.  Our next visit will be in 2016.  The VBON was very complimentary of the quality of our program and the technology used. 

The Commonwealth Nursing Program is a partnership that includes Blue Ridge Community College, Germanna Community College, Virginia Western Community College and John Tyler Community College.  The program offers students the opportunity to complete the majority of their courses online.

The Commonwealth Nursing Program is a creative and demanding way to increase the number of community college nursing graduates and help address Virginia’s nursing shortage.  Dr. Monty Sullivan, vice chancellor for academic and student affairs for Virginia’s Community Colleges, says board approval is a validation of the program’s quality and innovation.

The approval is unique in that the program is a multi-college collaborative and is delivered primarily online.  Achieving BON approval is a major step forward for the program.  But perhaps more significantly, this approval represents a continuing shift in thinking toward greater acceptance of electronic delivery of instruction in some of our most difficult curricular areas.  This is yet another example of how Virginia’s community colleges are meeting the need for more nurses throughout the commonwealth.

Posted by Jeffrey Kraus