The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing is ranked as one of the nation’s Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs by U.S. News & World Report. In the 2017 rankings released Tuesday, the college’s graduate online nursing program is tied for 61st out of 144 schools – moving up from 73rd in last year’s ranking.
The college offers a variety of master’s and doctoral of nursing practice degree specialties that use online and other teaching formats. The programs prepare nurse practitioners or executives in specialty tracks of women's health, adult gerontology, pediatrics, family nurse practitioner, psychiatric mental health, and administration.
"We are dedicated to providing flexible learning opportunities to meet students' diverse needs and harnessing the power of technology to transform learning," said Juliann Sebastian, Ph.D., dean of the UNMC College of Nursing. "I am pleased that the quality of the online learning in our master's program has been recognized by the increase in our standing in this report."
Gathering the information for the 2017 Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs rankings required compiling a list of nursing schools offering master's degree programs online and collecting data from the schools.
U.S. News evaluated five categories to rank the programs: faculty credentials and training (25 percent); student engagement (20 percent): admissions selectivity (20 percent); peer reputation (20 percent) and student services and technology (15 percent).
The UNMC College of Nursing uses a variety of online learning technologies in the master’s degree in nursing program.
"Our students learn in state-of-the-art clinical simulation and e-Learning labs," said Lynne Buchanan, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the UNMC College of Nursing master’s program and co-program director of the bachelor’s degree to doctor of nursing practice degree. "Our learning framework is student- and technology-centered and allows students great flexibility to meet their education goals. Students have the option of staying in the comfort of their own home and coming into one of our urban campus learning centers maybe only once or twice a semester for most courses."
U.S. News selects factors, known as ranking indicators, to assess each program in the categories. A program's score for each ranking indicator is calculated using data that the program reported to U.S. News in a statistical survey.
In March 2016, the UNMC College of Nursing had two programs ranked by U.S. News & World Report – the master’s program was ranked 46th in the country and the doctor of nursing practice (DNP) program was ranked 54th.
For more information about the ranking and methodology, go to http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/edupdfs/online/BOP2017_Methodology_Nursing.pdf.
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