North Dakota State University’s School of Nursing is now accepting applications for its new accelerated nursing degree program.
The program is available through the NDSU School of Nursing at Sanford Health in Bismarck. It provides the opportunity to pursue a BSN degree in about 14 consecutive months.
Charys Kunkel is director of NDSU’s School of Nursing at Sanford Health. She says the program is one way to help fill the need for nurses across the state and region.
"In North Dakota itself, there's more than 1,100 job postings for registered nurses alone. And this has been projected nationally through special accreditation agencies so it's not only meeting the needs for now, but also for the future - for the nurses who will be retiring, and actually, when we think about our aging population, which is increasing."
Kunkel says there are two incentive options for students who apply for the program.
"Sanford Health is offering two options; they're offering either two payments of $13,000, or students can have a $25,000 signing bonus upon completing school, which would come with a three year commitment. So they beauty of that, is that it can pay for their education - and they're guaranteed to have a job."
Applications for this fall’s semester are being accepted through June 20, 2023. The program will include in-person classes, with some online classes also available.