With High Demand for BSN Educated Registered Nurses, Montclair State University Adding New Nursing School

Many colleges and universities across New Jersey have been working to create new programs to help registered nurses upgrade their nursing degrees to a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN). With a nationwide nursing shortage affecting healthcare programs, demand has been high for BSN educated registered nurses, leading Montclair State University, one of New Jersey’s largest universities, to add a new nursing school.

The university announced on Wednesday that they have appointed a new founding dean of the School of Nursing, which is scheduled to open in the fall. The newly appointed dean, Janice Smolowitz, is a senior director at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She will be taking office at Montclair State next month.

Montclair’s new nursing program will be an RN to BSN degree program, designed for current registered nurses to go back to school to earn their bachelor of science. The university has announced it will be creating other nursing programs, scheduled to begin in 2017, including a nursing major for undergraduate students.

New recommendations from the Institute of Medicine advise that hospitals and medical institutions require their registered nurses to hold BSN degrees, a new guideline that will be rolled out and enforced over the next decade. This has sent many working nurses back to school and increased demand for nursing schools to take on more students.

To facilitate the new nursing school, Montclair State will be renovating Partridge Hall, a 50,000-square-foot academic building near the university’s student center. Renovation plans include an anatomy lab, mock quarantine room, and high-tech simulation labs with computerized mannequins for student training. With the severe regional and national shortage of qualified nurses ongoing, Montclair State intends to align its new nursing program with new directions in the nursing profession, educating nurses to work in collaborative teams to promote health.