SALT LAKE CITY, JULY 16, 2024 – Western Governors University’s (WGU) Michael O. Leavitt School of Health (LSH), today announced the expansion of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Prelicensure) program to seven new states — Arkansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin — to help students initiate their career in the nursing industry. The accredited degree program is now available in 24 states and counting.

Global consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, estimates that the United States could have a shortfall of direct patient care nurses ranging from 200,000 to 450,000 by 2025. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics echoes similar projections and reports that employment opportunities for nurses will grow at nine percent, faster than all other occupations from 2016 through 2026.

“We are expanding the BSN Prelicensure program to new states and establishing simulation labs in strategic locations across the country to make high-quality education accessible and attainable. With competency-based education (CBE), we can meet students where they are and promote workforce diversity,” said LSH Senior Vice President and Executive Dean, Keith Smith. “This program aims to advance health equity by adding competent professionals to the nursing pipeline for better patient-outcomes.”

Recognizing the country’s acute nursing shortage crisis, and to facilitate community-based employment, WGU is expanding the Prelicensure program with an aim to add more than 3,000 new nursing graduates to the workforce by the end of 2027. As a part of the expansion, the university is building Clinical Learning and Simulation Centers (commonly referred to as nursing simulation labs) across the country and partnering with healthcare employers in communities for training sites and clinical faculty and staff.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) reports that more than 65,000 qualified applications (not applicants) were turned away from schools of nursing nationwide in 2023. While AACN mentions that the students submitting these applications may have been accepted and enrolled elsewhere, the report emphasizes that a variety of reasons stall nurse education, including the lack of infrastructure and faculty. WGU’s BSN Prelicensure program is designed to add capacity and offer flexible, affordable, and high-quality education for nursing students.

“WGU is removing barriers and opening pathways to opportunity for aspiring nurses via the disruptive, nontraditional CBE model. We have highly qualified faculty and mentors who work closely with our students to foster the development of a patient-focused aptitude. With wraparound services and various scholarships, we try to support our students as they endeavor to achieve their dreams of serving the healthcare industry as well as the local community,” said LSH Senior Associate Dean and Director of Undergraduate Programs, Kimberly Kelly-Cortez.

With no prerequisites for enrollment, this hybrid program is approximately 60 percent online, with the remaining 40 percent as hands-on clinical and lab time. Students undertake clinical training at WGU’s nursing simulation labs and complete multiple clinical rotations in hospitals and community-based settings for each clinical course. The completion of this program prepares students for the registered nurse (R.N.) licensing exam, National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN Exam). Over the last five years, WGU’s first-time NCLEX-RN average pass rate has been 89.21 percent, which is above the national five-year average of all BSN programs as reported by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). The university has also been at or above the national average for more than five years.

“I always wanted to be a nurse but enrolling in a traditional nursing program meant that I would have to give up my job, which wasn’t something I was ready for. But then I came across WGU and realized that this is what I had been waiting for, an accredited nursing degree from a university that lets me complete a major part of the program online with an assurance that I will still be trained on components that demand in-person learning. I am currently in the clinical portion of the program and love my training classes at WGU’s clinical nursing labs,” said Kayla Stroup, a current BSN Prelicensure student from Missouri.

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing states that approximately 100,000 R.N.s left the workforce since the COVID-19 pandemic and more than 600,000 intend to leave by 2027 because of stress, burnout, and retirement. Because nurses are leaving the field, increasing access, removing barriers, and expanding innovative, high-quality health and nurse education programs that positively impact society are prime LSH goals.

WGU’s BSN Prelicensure program is steadily expanding throughout the country and is also presently offered to students residing in these 17 states: Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The university has three nursing simulation centers in Houston, TX, Salt Lake City, UT, and Kansas City, MO, with additional facilities scheduled to open next year. More than 2,500 students are currently enrolled in this program and more than 2,000 have successfully graduated. Click here to read about the program specifics and for the latest information regarding program availability in upcoming states.

About Michael O. Leavitt School of Health (LSH): The school, named in honor of the former governor of Utah and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, was established in 2006 with the mission to make a difference in the fields of healthcare, nursing, and higher education through competency-based education. The school conferred 5.4 percent of all bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing across the country during the 2021-2022 academic year. According to the Utah Foundation Research Brief, LSH represents more than 170,000 jobs in the healthcare industry and the school produced a whopping 17 percent of the nation’s registered nurses earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2021. The school has also been recognized for its impact by Platte County, Missouri. With more than 100,000 graduates and over 118,000 degrees already conferred by LSH, the school presently serves nearly 25,000 students nationwide. Learn more at Leavitt School of Health (wgu.edu).