Eligible nursing students at Germanna Community College can more easily come to the University of Mary Washington to complete bachelor’s degrees, thanks to agreements signed this fall.
UMW’s bachelor of science in nursing is a degree-completion program. The first cohort enrolled this fall. Funded in part by a grant from Mary Washington Healthcare, it allows registered nurses with associate degrees or nursing diplomas to complete their four-year degrees at the university.
The degree-completion option is open to any registered nurse, not just those from Germanna. But the new partnership cements a nursing degree-completion connection between the two institutions.
Under agreements signed by President Richard V. Hurley and the community college’s president, David A. Sam, nursing students have several options. They can attend Germanna first, earn associate degrees, and then transfer to Mary Washington. They can live on campus at UMW while taking classes at both institutions. Or they can take UMW liberal arts courses while completing associate degrees in nursing at Germanna.
The agreements add nursing-degree specificity to a policy already in place, allowing academically eligible Germanna students to enroll concurrently at UMW and transfer credits.
“These agreements will open more doors for nursing students to experience a higher level of learning,” said Pamela McCullough, director of UMW’s BSN-completion program.