Letter from the Director

June, 2006

Dear Future Nurses,

The Concordia University Nursing Program began this June with 27 carefully selected students who started summer classes in the junior level nursing program. This outstanding group is composed of students who have completed their sophomore year at Concordia, transfer students, and some college graduates. All have excellent grades in pre-requisite courses. See my advice for those of you in high school who will be admitted into the Freshman BSN Program or for those of you preparing to transfer to Concordia. Please refer to Priorities for Admission to understand how to succeed in being admitted to the junior level program.

I want to tell you about the special features of the Concordia nursing program. The program will lay a strong groundwork in practice skills so that students at the end of the junior year will be competent to perform the most common nursing procedures and responsibilities. Students will study the nursing care of adults with physical illness for that entire junior year, beginning with basic skills in the summer and then progressing into both semesters of the junior year that emphasize the integration of pathophysiology, pharmacology, and nursing clinical judgment. After the junior year, students will study mental health nursing in the summer and pediatric and obstetrical nursing in the fall of the senior year. Spring of the senior year includes community health nursing focusing on the health of people in the community and a final senior course that includes critical care, team leadership, and a clinical elective.

The nursing program will prepare students to promote health as well as care for the sick. The practice of compassion will be emphasized throughout the program as students systematically develop interpersonal and cross-cultural understanding and competency. Developing one’s own spiritual grounding will be strongly emphasized at Concordia. Leadership skills will be systematically developed throughout the program. The mission of Concordia University’s B.S. in Nursing is to “foster clinical competence and reflective compassion to prepare nurses who will promote health, provide expert bedside care, and provide leadership within healthcare organizations and the community.”

Please check our website regularly for scheduled updates. Thanks again for choosing Concordia University!

Sincerely,

Dr. Joyce Zerwekh
Nursing Program Director