The Program, Year By Year
Freshman year, you will enter the Nursing Program, get a faculty adviser within your major and start to learn the basics of the profession right away. Capital is one of the few schools that admits you into the nursing major as a first-year student.
Sophomore year, you will begin your clinical practice in the labs at the Nursing Program under direct faculty supervision. With one faculty member for every eight students, you'll get plenty of attention and guidance in the laboratory setting. The average laboratory class size is 16, so you'll never get lost in the crowd.
Summer after your sophomore year, you will put what you've learned into action with eight mandatory weeks of caring for patients in a local hospital. You'll apply all the fundamental skills you have learned, plus add more skills and experiences necessary for your move into the junior year.
Junior year provides you with opportunities to care for and interact with newborns, children, adults, gerians and, of course, their families. You'll learn the specific issues and techniques involved in parent-newborn, medical-surgical, psychiatric and pediatric arenas. Capital University has contracts with all the major health-care agencies in the Columbus area. In the junior year, you will have the opportunity to work in several health-care organizations including a large regional children's hospital. These experiences will give you the breadth and depth of experience to move into your senior year.
Senior year brings the opportunity for in-depth study in selected areas of health care. You'll work one-on-one with professional nurses, getting a feel for the day-to-day realities of extended hours and varied shifts, as well as care for populations (not just individuals) through the field of community health. In this year, you will begin an evidenced-based review of a topic that may culminate in a poster presentation to the campus community at the annual Symposium on Undergraduate Scholarship. This project will provide you with cutting-edge skills needed by professional nurses as they look at the evidence upon which their practice is based.
Review a typical four-year class schedule for the Nursing Program.
Our Faculty
Lifelong learning is a core value at Capital University. Nursing faculty takes this value to heart.
Capital University nursing professors are more than just teachers; they're expert practitioners in their specialty areas. What's more, they are constantly refining the curriculum to reflect new knowledge so the concepts and techniques you learn have immediate applications in the real world.
Nursing professors are also committed to individualized instruction, they'll spend the time to make sure you get the full benefit of their knowledge.
Job Prospects for Nurses
There's a competitive and growing demand for well-educated professional nurses. Capital University nursing graduates are eagerly recruited to work in all kinds of health-care environments. With an undergraduate nursing degree, your career options include:
- Hospital staff nursing, with the potential for promotion to management
- Home-based community and industrial health nursing
- A commissioned officer and nurse for the military
A graduate degree in nursing expands your horizons even further to the areas of:
- Education
- Administration
- Legal Studies
- Theological Studies
Learn more about Capital University's graduate program in nursing.
What Makes Capital's Nursing Program Special?
Affiliations with Cutting-Edge Healthcare Organizations and On-site Skills Labs
The School of Nursing features a spacious skills lab with 10 contemporary hospital beds and two modern examination rooms. In addition, the Columbus area provides our students with a wide range of clinical settings for hands-on experiences.
SIM-Man Human Simulator
Your instructor can program these hyper-realistic mannequins to test your clinical and decision-making skills during realistic patient-care scenarios.
Small Class Size
During clinical experiences, the faculty/student ratio is 1:8. In the laboratory, the average class size is 16.
Integrated State Licensing Exam Review
We use standardized exams throughout our program that allow practice in the testing format used in the RN licensure exam.
On-Site Dedicated Computer and Study Lab
The Helene Fuld Health Trust Learning Resources Laboratory contains nursing texts and reference books, high-speed microcomputers for computer simulations, specialized nursing software, and a place to watch nursing videos and CD-ROMs.
Accelerated Specialization
Students are admitted directly into the School of Nursing as freshmen and immediately assigned a faculty adviser. This enables them to focus more quickly on areas of interest and make connections faster than they otherwise might.
Program Flexibility for RNs
Registered nurses may complete their BSN degree in a flexible evening/weekend program that accommodates their schedules.
International and Off-Campus Study
Seniors have the option of spending eight weeks of their first semester in Sweden studying community health nursing, while sophomores and juniors have a variety of off-campus study opportunities. They can travel to Mexico to help staff at a local clinic or spend a week in Panama. Off-campus study opportunities vary and are generally for a shorter duration of time.
Student Nursing Organizations
Capital is home to several student nursing organizations.
ROTC Nursing Education Program
The Capital University Nursing Program has been recognized by the Reserve Officers Training Corps as a Partner in Nursing Education for the preparation of U.S. Army nurses. Of the more than 400 college and university nursing programs in the U.S., Capital's is one of only 40 to be honored with this distinction.
Capital's nursing/ROTC partnership is a strong collaboration that leads to a BSN degree and a commission as an Army officer. For more information about this program, call (614) 236-7114.
Our Clinical Partners
At the Capital University, we believe there are many ways to solve problems and to learn. So we offer our students hands-on clinical experiences in a wide range of settings, including:
- Local hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission of Accreditation of Hospitals
- Local health-care agencies accredited by the appropriate accrediting bodies
Review a complete list of affiliated hospitals and health-care agencies.
The Nursing Program Mission
Educating professional nurse leaders for lives of service promoting health and healing within our diverse community.