The Elms College School of Nursing in Chicopee, Mass. recently announced a new Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree and graduate certificate in school nursing program to help expand opportunities for school nurses to meet state education requirements. Massachusetts school nurses are required to earn board certification in school nursing or their MSN degree within five years of employment and currently there is only one graduate program in New England that focuses on school nursing.

School nurses see large numbers of students with a wide array of needs, sometimes spread over several schools as our country faces a shortage of nurses, especially in schools. They must be able to assess; diagnose; identify outcomes; plan, implement, and coordinate care; and teach healthy practices to their students while working with several other healthcare professionals when needed from physicians to counselors to classroom aides.

The school nurse track offered at Elms will be comprised of MSN curriculum components, with a focus on school nursing that includes core graduate nursing classes, direct-care courses, school nurse professional standards, technology and informatics, and school nurse practicums. The school nurse certificate won’t fulfill state board-certification requirements, but it benefits nurses with a graduate degree in another discipline who want to improve their school nursing knowledge base.

All BSN nurses at Elms College will be eligible to enroll in the school nursing graduate certificate which consists of 12 credits and three class options: classroom attendance, livestream, or archived videos. The first group of students enrolled in the graduate core classes will begin in Fall 2017, and school nursing functional content courses will roll out in Spring 2018.

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