The Nursing program is part of the BGSU College of Health and Human Services

- BBachelors Available
- Bachelor'sBachelors Available
Nursing
BGSU’s Bachelor of Science in nursing degree prepares students for jobs as registered nurses. You can enter one of many care-centered specializations and find rewarding, flexible and enjoyable work across the entire spectrum of the health sector.
Students will be prepared to provide safe and person-centered care to diverse populations across the lifespan using evidence-based practice. BGSU Bachelor of Science in nursing graduates will use leadership and clinical judgment skills to improve the spectrum of complex healthcare issues throughout Ohio, the nation and the world.
Quality classroom experiences
Our Ohio based state-of-the-art nursing skills and simulation center provides students with hands-on experiences and realistic patient scenarios that promote clinical judgment. The lab space is filled with audio/visual equipment to assist students in guided reflection and debriefing sessions on their nursing practice. The 23-bed skills lab space will be open to students to use any time of the day to practice skills learned in the classroom.
BGSU faculty are experts in the field of nursing and bring excellent knowledge, skills and attributes to each class, lab and clinical experience. BGSU nursing degree students will not just “see,” they will “do.” The program’s mission is to prepare nursing graduates who are truly ready to enter the workforce immediately after graduation.
Stand Out in courses like
- Maternal Nursing
- Mental Health Nursing
- Surgical Nursing
- Practicum clinical experience
- NCLEX Prep
Curriculum
BGSU School of Nursing faculty promote experiential learning through innovative, creative, engaging and reflective education in the classroom, simulation lab and clinical settings. Students develop clinical judgment skills to promote safe and quality person-centered care to diverse populations in various healthcare settings, from critical care to home and community-based nursing.
Students start with general education courses, covering biology, human nutrition and medical ethics, among others. From the first year, they will also be introduced to nursing and the different lifespan areas, and they will start to understand important topics such as cultural diversity, the human body, communication, professionalism and much more.
Knowing that each student learns differently, faculty employ various teaching strategies to target each student’s needs. Advisors are available to each student to ensure their success in the nursing program.
The program offers innovative teaching strategies to promote clinical judgment skills, which will assist the student in passing the National Licensure Nursing Exam (NCLEX-RN) and transition to nursing practice seamlessly.
Experiential Learning
Clinical opportunities exist for nursing students to learn core nursing skills, like physical assessment, wound management, and IV management. You will gain knowledge and care for real patients in a variety of settings throughout the nursing program.
Students will have a final practicum course in which they will choose a clinical site for meaningful learning to demonstrate their skills and knowledge as they prepare to enter the workforce.
The School of Nursing has formed robust partnerships with many Ohio area health care organizations to maximize clinical experience opportunities. Nursing students will work with a faculty member and preceptor in their chosen healthcare location to learn the skills necessary to make a successful transition from school to the nursing workforce.
Average Starting Salary & BGSU Placement Rate
The average salary of a new graduate nurse is $66,728.00, according to a salary.com user-reported survey from October 2022. As a working qualified nurse, you will have opportunities to travel with your job, work in different settings and continue your learning journey.
Registered nursing (RN) is listed among the top occupations in terms of job growth through 2026, with a projected need of an additional 203,700 new RNs each year to fill newly created positions and replace retiring nurses. This is according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Projections 2016-2026. They also report that the median nurse salary in 2019 was $73,300 per year.
Students who graduate with a Bachelor of Science in nursing degree have many gainful employment opportunities throughout the country. Typical nursing jobs are in hospitals, clinics or physicians’ offices, but opportunities also include schools and camps, correctional facilities, cruise ships and the military, just to name a few.
In 2019, the Ohio Board of Nursing provided a summary of employment rates for Ohio that showed 95% of nurses with an active license are employed.
GO FAR in your career
Graduates who pass the NCLEX-RN can work in a variety of healthcare settings including:
- Hospitals
- Critical care settings
- School nursing
- Teaching
- Specialty clinics
- Outpatient settings
- Hospice care
- Correctional facilities
- Home care
- Case management
- Physician offices
- Long-term care facilities
Faculty provide robust mentorship and individualized learning resources to ensure student success in the program.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the Bachelor of Science in nursing program, students will be able to:
- Integrate principles of liberal education in providing care for culturally diverse populations across the lifespan.
- Analyze the role of the nurse leader in quality improvement, interdisciplinary collaboration, and communication within an organizational structure.
- Apply evidence in decision-making to improve patient outcomes.
- Use information and healthcare technologies to inform patients and support a safe practice environment.
- Examine quality healthcare through policy, social justice and collaboration with multiple disciplines across diverse populations.
- Evaluate principles of health promotion and disease prevention for individuals, families and communities.
- Integrate professional standards, care, values, ethics, altruism and integrity when managing care.
Admission Requirements
- Submit an online application to the BSN program by May 1 (for fall entry) or September 1 (for spring entry) of your sophomore year (or equivalent). All prerequisite courses and supportive requirements must be completed before the first core nursing course begins.
- A grade of “C” or better is required for all science courses.
- All applicants are notified by letter of acceptance or rejection.
- All applicants to the BSN program must achieve a score ≥75 in each category of the HESI Admission Assessment Exam (this is completed prior to the application deadline to the BSN program).
- Admission is competitive and is based on a total admission rubric score comprised of the student’s cumulative GPA, cumulative science GPA, and scores on selected components of the HESI Admission Assessment Exam (Reading Comprehension, Math, and Vocabulary).
- The student is responsible to complete a criminal background investigation, drug screen, health assessment, immunizations and AHA Basic Life Support Certification after acceptance into the nursing major at the student’s expense. Completion is required for the student to start nursing core courses. Information about the Viewpoint Screening service is provided to the student to assist with this process.
- Direct admission is offered to students with a cumulative high school GPA of 3.9.
- Students must maintain nursing admission requirements to maintain the direct admission seat.
- Students who fail to meet the requirements necessary to maintain their guaranteed seat in the program can apply through the competitive application process and their admission will be determined based on their rubric score.
- Deadline to apply for direct admission is January 15, prior to the start of the Freshman year at BGSU. Direct admission is only offered for fall start.
Technical standards are an objective method of ensuring that all applicants meet and satisfactorily maintain the nursing program performance requirements. To ensure that students can meet end-of-course and end-of-program outcomes of the Bachelor of Science in nursing program at BGSU, the following technical standards shall be met, with or without reasonable accommodations (student accessibility services). A reasonable accommodation must be documented as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Decisions regarding reasonable accommodation are determined on a case-by-case basis taking into consideration each student’s disability-related needs, disability documentation and program requirements. While the School of Nursing will make every effort to work with students with disabilities to accommodate their disability-related needs, the School of Nursing is not required to provide accommodations that fundamentally alter or waive essential program requirements.
The student must be able to:
- Provide safe patient care in any healthcare setting.
- Respond effectively and safely in emergency situations.
- Communicate effectively in a verbal, written and technological manner with individuals, families, communities, peers and interprofessionally.
- Speak, hear, observe, read and understand the English language.
- Have auditory abilities sufficient to auscultate, percuss, hear alarms and various sounds within all healthcare settings, promoting safe care (may be corrected hearing).
- Have visual ability sufficient to promote safe care in all health care settings and situations (may be corrected vision).
- Have olfactory ability sufficient to assess various odors that may indicate unsafe situations.
- Have tactile ability sufficient to perform palpation and various assessments of individuals.
- Assess patients and monitor health needs.
- Provide safe, quality health care to all individuals across the lifespan in a variety of health care settings.
- Function safely in stressful situations.
- Demonstrate behaviors of compassion, integrity, responsibility, and ethical practices that reflect an evolving identity as a professional nurse.
- Demonstrate effective emotional status to exercise good clinical judgment skills and knowledge.
- Meet physical strength and mobility demands of providing care in any healthcare setting.
- Consistently lift 10 pounds.
- Lift ≥20 pounds in various situations.
- Transfer, lift and reposition individuals.
- Perform CPR.
- Stand for long periods of time.
- Move independently in patient rooms to provide safe care.
- Utilize gross and fine motor skills sufficient to provide safe patient care.
- Administer medications safely.
- Use equipment with dexterity to provide safe patient care.
- Abide by all admission requirements outlined in the Nursing Student Health Policy.
- The admission rubric will be used to determine admission to the nursing major.
- Components of the admission rubric include:
- Cumulative GPA
- Science GPA
- Math 1150 GPA (Statistics)
- HESI A2 Scoring of Reading comprehension, Math, and Vocabulary/General Knowledge
- Total rubric score will be used to determine admission.
- A total of 80 seats are available for the nursing major in fall, and 40 seats in the spring.
Transfer credit for nursing courses will only be granted if the courses come from a baccalaureate nursing education program accredited by a national nursing accrediting body. The Director of School of Nursing will review course descriptions of nursing courses completed at another baccalaureate program to determine which courses are transferrable. The student must be enrolled at BGSU for at least two semesters in the nursing major and complete 30 credit hours from BGSU to be granted a baccalaureate degree in nursing.
- Prospective students who have been honorably discharged from the armed forces of the United States, National Guard, or a reserve component may transfer credits for military training and experience. Credit will be awarded for any military education or skills training deemed substantially equivalent to courses in the BSN curriculum. The Transfer Evaluation Department will evaluate all military courses to determine identify credit allocation.
- The Office of Nontraditional and Military Student Services is available to assist students with prior learning assessment to determine college level equivalency.
- Military service will be evaluated to identify if the international perspective BGP course could be waived: An international experience, defined as an academic study abroad experience bearing three or more credits or a documented international military deployment of at least 30 consecutive or 60 non-consecutive days. The student is still required to meet the 36 credit hours of BGP course work for graduation.
- BGSU awards academic credit for completion of Airman Leadership School. The University has approved LMM 1101 Management/Leadership I to fulfill the requirement for Cultural Diversity in the United States. This is an automatic substitution that is handled by the Transfer Evaluation Office.
- Prospective students who were honorably discharged, within the previous five years, will not be required to take the HESI Admission Assessment examination. Three seats in the BSN program will be saved for students with military service experience or who are contracted with the ROTC.
- For students with military service experience or who are contracted with the ROTC, the BSN program will save 3 seats for fall admits and 2 for spring admits.
Bowling Green State University [BGSU] is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. BGSU has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission since 01/01/1916. The most recent reaffirmation of accreditation was received in January 2023. Questions should be directed to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness.
The baccalaureate degree program in nursing at Bowling Green State University is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
Students who earn a Bachelor of Science in nursing degree will be eligible to take the NCLEX-RN exam. Students wishing to take the licensure examination in Ohio must abide by the following rules located at http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/4723-7. Students are also eligible to take the licensure exam in the state they reside following the rules outlined for that State Board of Nursing.
The Nursing program is part of the BGSU College of Health and Human Services
* Job placement and salary information was compiled by the Office of Academic Assessment through the Graduation Survey from AY2015-2018. The data are gathered around the time of Commencement and a follow-up survey six months post Commencement. For the salary question, data for programs with fewer than fifteen responses are not included. Salaries for those programs are from the National Association of Colleges and Employers Summer 2019 Survey. For questions regarding the data, contact assessment@bgsu.edu.
Updated: 05/24/2023 03:23PM