May 08, 2014

Front row (from left) - Sara Hylton, Teresa Getha-Eby and Meg Schroeder; back row (from left) - Michael Mullen, Darlene Molson, Brooke Sanders and Jodie Andres

The Good Samaritan College of Nursing and Health Sciences graduated its first Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) class Thursday, May 8, at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral in downtown Cincinnati.

Six students received a bachelor's degree from the program, which started in August 2012.  

"It has been an exciting two years working with these six graduates. Like any new program, we learned a lot from the students along the way," said Teresa Getha-Eby Ph.D., RN, department chair of the BSN program. 

"It was important for us to get participant input on what was valuable and what they think will make our program even stronger in the future. They learned, we learned and I am excited about the future of this program," she said.

One of the graduates, Michael Mullen BSN, RN, CEN, has been a nurse for 25 years with an associate degree and expected to retire that way.

"I attended an Emergency Nurses Association conference and it opened my eyes that nursing is a lot bigger than what I was doing," Mullen said.

He enrolled as a member of the inaugural BSN class and had a positive experience.

"It was a born-again experience coming here. The staff and instructors cultivated my desire to learn," Mullen said.   

Many BSN programs have shifted to online-only models for instruction, but Good Samaritan College of Nursing maintains a hybrid model. One-third of the program is online and the rest is face-to-face instruction.

"Some of our students felt they would get more from face-to-face instruction, hands-on, than a program that is online," Getha-Eby said.

Currently, there are 118 students enrolled in the BSN program, 75 of which are nurses who have an associate degree already. The other 43 students are part of Good Samaritan nursing college's associate degree program and are taking courses toward their BSN.

"We're expecting, as students get accepted to the associate degree program, they will opt to be dually enrolled in the baccalaureate program right from the start," Getha-Eby said.