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Undergraduate Nursing Department

Programs Tailored Towards Your Goals

Our unique programs are geared towards helping you succeed and start your career in nursing practice. Choose to complete a BSN with a co-op offering real world employment experience or opt for an accelerated program.

Undergraduate Nursing

The College of Nursing and Health Professions Undergraduate Nursing Department offers three exciting programs that will help you launch your career in the health care field.

Our BSN Co-op Program is a unique way to earn your degree while participating in Drexel's cooperative education model – dividing your time between class and real-world work experience. We also offer an Accelerated Career Entry Program and an RN/BSN Completion Program.

As a part of the Undergraduate Nursing Department, you will join a community of clinicians, researchers, faculty, and students in your journey toward nursing practice.

We invite you to explore the degree programs offered through this department that will help you begin your career in nursing. Please explore our web pages for a wealth of information about our programs, students, faculty, research and clinical practice.

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News & Events

 

05/05/23

The following CNHP Student Story submitted by Camryn Amen, BS nursing '23, in honor of Nurses Week 2023.

Camryn Amen sits in lobby of Health Sciences Building, smiling at camera My freshman year, I was very eager to get involved on campus and experience the nursing community at Drexel. I remember my first event that I attended was making holiday cards for patients at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. From day one, the Drexel University Student Nursing Association (DUSNA) allowed me to feel engaged in the nursing community and provided me with ample opportunities to meet new people. During my sophomore year, I applied to and was selected to attend the Student Nursing Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) Convention in Lancaster, PA. This was the first time I realized my role as a student nurse went beyond the classroom and campus. During my junior year, I was elected the Legislative Chair of DUSNA wherein I wrote our resolution about maternal mental health that was passed at both the state and national level. I am happy to say that I am now, in my last year at Drexel, serving the role of President of DUSNA, something I could not have imagined myself doing when I attended that first event freshman year. being a part of DUSNA has really shaped my nursing experience here at Drexel.

Without DUSNA, I would have never had incredible opportunities presented to me. Between our community service and professional development events, to the state and national conventions and conferences we get to attend, it is truly such an integral part to making the most out of your college career here at Drexel. Moreover, the ability to engage with a community of my fellow nursing students, learn from them, mentor them, and overall form unbreakable bonds one of the most wonderful things that DUSNA provides.

In my five years at Drexel, I was able to experience two co-ops and over five unique clinical rotations. These provided me with technical nursing skills but also skills like professional communication, prioritization and organization, and specifically for co-op, resume building and interviewing skills. My third and final co-op was on the Intensive Care Nursery at Pennsylvania Hospital, which was my dream job and the reason why I wanted to become a nurse. Opportunities like this, to work with your dream population as an undergrad and build connections at some of the best hospitals in the city are only available at Drexel, I say that confidently. Nowhere else are you able to get specific professional experience in your area of interest so early in your career.

My junior year I participated in the Macy Undergraduate Leadership Fellowship Program. I knew that I could see myself in leadership roles, and had held many up to that point, but I felt that the fellowship would allow me to learn about what it means to be a strong leader. The fellowship allowed me to reflect on what I value as a leader, and how I could use my skills to make a change in the healthcare field.

I have been looking forward to the opening of the Health Sciences Building since my freshman year. Four years later, I am so happy to be able to experience all that this building offers. The simulation labs are miraculous and offer such incredible hands-on learning opportunities. The common areas are equipped with a variety of rooms that are conducive to different types of learning. My favorite thing about the health sciences building is that we as health sciences students finally have a home base on campus and can be fully integrated into the campus community.

Philadelphia is truly everyone's city. No matter what your interests are there is something for you here. As a nursing major, I am among one of the best healthcare cities in the world, with endless opportunities for once in a lifetime experiences. While on my clinicals and co-ops I was able to see medical care in its most cutting-edge form and its highest quality. Not only that, but I was able to care for people coming far and wide for medical treatment, but I could also give back to the community for those who make up our wonderful city. This is a really special experience and one that I am so fortunate to have inform my nursing care throughout my career.

 

05/05/23

Learn more about our nursing programs and career outcomes at CNHP from recent alumna, Olivia Goossen, CRNA, FNP-BC, APN.

Olivia Goosen standing in front of yellow tiled wall, wearing black suitCRNA at Drexel

I graduated from the Nurse Anesthesia program at Drexel’s College of Nursing and Health Professions in 2021. Now, I work as the Vice Chief CRNA at Community Medical Center in Toms River, New Jersey. I also work as an adjunct professor in the Drexel CRNA program. I am currently pursuing my doctorate in Anesthesia Practice at the Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia, with a fellowship in acute pain management.

Anyone who completes the CRNA program at Drexel knows that it is a life-changing role. I don’t know anyone who is an unhappy CRNA because it simply is the coolest job. My sole function, as a nurse-anesthesiologist, is to reduce the anxiety of my patients, to reduce their pain levels and to keep them safe. There is a lot of fulfillment in that.

On a practical level, CRNAs have strong job security. I was offered a job within four months into my program, which is pretty typical. Even if I wasn’t teaching as an adjunct professor, with my former professors as my now colleagues, I would feel comfortable reaching out to them as an alum with any questions. In my role at Drexel now, I’ve tried to carry that forward to our current students.

Future of Pain Management

The coolest part of my job is acute pain management. I want to be there for my patients and support them through their experience. In the current CRNA world, a huge focus of study is the ability to provide effective pain management that is safe and limits, or completely excludes, the application of opioids during an anesthetic case for a variety of reasons. With the ongoing opioid crisis, there are several reasons why we are interested in limiting their use, in addition to the fact that some people simply can’t tolerate the effects of opioids and need alternatives.

A current alternative is ultrasound guided regional anesthetics via peripheral nerve blockade. This alternative requires more training and more work, but the effects are really profound. We are seeing patients who are comfortable, alert and talking after their procedure. This alternative, and other multi-modal techniques are not brand new, but they are becoming more mainstream, which is exciting to see and to be a part of. As a CRNA, I want to always be on top of the latest techniques to keep my patients safe and as pain-free as possible.

Advice to CRNA Students

I may be stealing advice from Ferne Cohen, PhD, director of clinical education for the Nurse Anesthesia Program, and Lew Bennett, PhD, chair of the Department of Nurse Anesthesia, but “trust the process”. From my experience as a student in the program, there is nothing in the program that wasn’t designed in some way to get you to a desired endpoint. It’s a lot to learn, and the amount of knowledge you’re expected to retain is vast, so that can be intimidating in the beginning, but trust the process.

In addition, I would say to remember that learning is lifelong. I completed my education at Drexel, but I am still pursuing further programs, and even when these programs are complete, I will still continue to learn throughout my career. There will be new techniques that emerge in five, ten, twenty years, and yet we will have to keep up. It is our role as health care providers to adapt to these changes, so I recommend that anyone coming into this program embrace a mindset where they understand that you will always keep learning.

Early on in my career, someone said to me that for professionals who work in healthcare, your “every day” is someone’s worst day. That isn’t always true for CRNAs, as we see people for elective surgeries as well, but I think it’s important to remember that the mundane and daily for us is anything but for the patients we treat. Empathy is everything. And sometimes, the answer we need to provide to our patients isn’t a drug but simply kindness, security or reassurance. Our aim is always to keep patients safe and that is my guiding light as a CRNA, and what I encourage for incoming students.

Written by Olivia Goossen

Edited by Izzy López

04/17/23

DUSNA members at NSNA 2023, pictured left to right, Megan Foster '23, Elisabeth Dumont '23, Sara McCarthy '24, Camryn Amen '23, Erin Valle '23, Claire Manger '24, Grace Twohig '23, Grace Sutton '24This month, eleven members of Drexel University's Student Nursing Association (DUSNA) traveled to Nashville, TN to attend the 71st Annual National Student Nurses Convention, including faculty advisors, Catherine Quay, assistant clinical professor, and Maureen Gonzales, assistant clinical professor. 

The convention theme for this 2023 was "REFLECTION: A Catalyst For Change". DUSNA members attended informational focus sessions about various topics in nursing education and careers. All of DUSNA's attendees represented Drexel as delegates from Pennsylvania. They voted to pass resolutions on a national level and bring about nation-wide change to nursing in House of Delegates meetings throughout the week. 

DUSNA's Legislative Chair, Sara McCarthy, proposed her resolution "Increasing Awareness On Supportive Nurse Leadership to Manage Moral Distress, Job Satisfaction, and Nurse Retention" and it was adopted on the national level. Several of our students also spoke on the floor of the House of Delegates to both “pro” and “con” other resolutions presented. They presented their arguments and advocated for themselves and their profession.

Sara McCarthy (pictured right) with accepted resolution for NSNA 2023 DUSNA members Grace Sutton and Kayleigh Blersch were awarded FNSNA Scholarships at the Opening Ceremony on Wednesday, April 12th. Grace received a scholarship from the Board of Certifications For Emergency Nursing and Kayleigh received a scholarship from Pixorize.

We are so proud of DUSNA for representing CNHP on the national level and we look forward to their leadership on campus, in their careers and beyond.

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