Widener

GENERIC UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

Full-time accepted students are admitted directly into the nursing program and begin their acculturation into the program at that time participating in the Widener University Student Nurses Association, regular freshman meetings with the deans, interaction with nursing advisors, and an Introduction to Nursing course.

Freshman & Sophomore Years of Study
The nursing curriculum for the full-time day option is systematically structured, introducing first year students to the discipline of nursing as a profession. In the second year, students are introduced to the individual as a client with social, cultural, spiritual and economic elements that interact to facilitate health. Selected basic therapeutic nursing interventions with supervised on-campus laboratory experiences are taught.

Junior & Senior Years of Study
In the junior year, students have scheduled clinical practice two days per week; in the senior year, clinical practice is scheduled three days per week. Community based experiences take place in various settings, including a mobile healthcare van, a senior citizens' apartment complex, adult day care centers, schools, and clients' homes.

Both urban, teaching hospitals and community hospitals provide the setting for rotations in adult acute care. Pediatric rotations are at large facilities designed for the specific care of children. Maternal child nursing rotations include a variety of settings and experiences in labor and delivery, postpartum, and nursery.

Psychiatric clinical rotations include both outpatient and inpatient units. The ratio of faculty to clinical students is 1:8 in most rotations. The final clinical rotation is a three week precepted experience in a specialty area and agency of the student's choice. 

Extracurricular Involvement
Nursing students are active in all phases of campus life such as student government, varsity sports, sororities and fraternities, honor societies, and volunteer organizations. The Widener University Student Nurses' Association (WUSNA) is affiliated with both the state and national nursing student organizations.

Students from Widener have held both state and national board positions and a delegation from Widener attends both the state and national conventions each year.  WUSNA is the largest chapter in the state of Pennsylvania, one of the largest chapters in the country and the largest student organization on campus.  WUSNA is active in community service and professional development of its members. 

The School's chapter (Eta Beta) of Sigma Theta Tau International, the Nursing Honor Society, was chartered on October 14, 1983.