McNeese Graduate Nursing Program Receives Nightingale Award

McNeese State University’s graduate nursing program has been recognized with the 2020 Nightingale Award as the Graduate Nursing School of the Year by the Louisiana State Nurses Association and the Louisiana Nurses Foundation.

McNeese’s graduate nursing program is part of the Intercollegiate Consortium for a Master of Science in Nursing, which includes McNeese and sister institutions Southeastern Louisiana University, Nicholls State University and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

This is the consortium’s second Nightingale Award recognizing the achievements of both its nursing faculty and students.

“This award reaffirms that students across our consortium are excellent nurses and our faculty are expert teachers and clinicians,” says Dr. Ann Warner, co-coordinator of the graduate nursing program at McNeese. “Each year many nurses looking to continue their education make McNeese their First Choice because of the successful curriculum and supportive, skilled faculty the consortium provides.”

McNeese’s graduate nursing program is offered fully online with three areas of study – family nurse practitioner, nursing education and psychiatric health nurse practitioner.

Warner says McNeese graduate students have the opportunity to collaborate with fellow nursing students and faculty from all four universities and the consortium’s shared curriculum provides a pathway to success for students.

“It’s not uncommon for a McNeese student to be enrolled in a course that might be taught by a faculty member at one of the other consortium institutions,” Warner explains. “This overlap allows students to network with their peers, conduct research together and learn from an even wider array of faculty than just their home institutions.”

According to Warner, an example of this collaboration is the research just published in the October Journal of Professional Nursing describing a project where graduate nursing education students and faculty from the consortium completed research investigating the role of paid employment during college in undergraduate students’ success.

Nov. 16 is the application deadline for students interested in enrolling in the graduate nursing program in spring 2021. For more information, visit www.mcneese.edu/academics/graduate/nursing, or email graduatenursing@mcneese.edu.