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About Us
Eastern Kentucky University is a comprehensive, regional university. Our service region includes 22 counties in southeastern Kentucky.
Eastern Kentucky University's Baccalaureate Nursing Program was organized in 1971. In the same year, the Meditation Chapel was dedicated and its influence can be seen in the B.S.N. cap and pin. The program became part of the newly established College of Allied Health and Nursing in 1975. In 1995, the Master's of Science in Nursing Program was approved and implemented. In 1999, the college name was changed to the College of Health Sciences.
Our department has grown over the years. Our Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program now has 3 options: the program for prelicensure students, an accelerated program for students who hold a baccalaureate degree in another field, and the Registered Nurse (RN) to BSN option. We also have a Master's of Science in Nursing (MSN) program. We graduated our first MSN class in 1997. The BSN and MSN programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education until 2011. All of our programs have continuing approval from the Kentucky Board of Nursing.
We offer distance education classes for our RN to BSN program at several sites including:
Corbin,
Danville, Hazard,
Manchester, & Richmond. To learn more, visit our
RN to BSN page. We offer the MSN program in Corbin, Danville, Manchester, Hazard and Richmond. These sites may not be available every semester. To learn more, visit our
MSN page.
Our offices are located on the main campus of Eastern Kentucky University in the Rowlett Building.
Our Philosophy
Consistent with the statements of philosophy of Eastern Kentucky University and the College of Health Sciences, the faculty of the Department of Baccalaureate and Graduate Nursing subscribe to the following beliefs about client, environment, health, nursing, professional nursing practice, baccalaureate nursing education, and graduate nursing education.
Client
Clients include individuals, families, and defined populations. Each client is unique and merits respect, support and dignity. Clients develop and adapt in recognizable phases and patterns. Clients continually seek meaning and purpose. Through participation in life's experiences, clients grow, assume responsibility and develop toward levels of maturity. Clients are an integration of biological, psychological, sociocultural, and spiritual spheres.
Environment
Environment is the aggregate of all objects, conditions, forces, and ideas that interact with clients. The environment influences health potential. A health promoting environment facilitates movement toward high level wellness. Society is the human subsystem of environment. Society is an open system and culture is the vehicle by which the system is perpetuated, regulated, and differentiated.
Communities serve as subsystems of society in which interaction occurs and the delivery of health care takes place. The non-human elements of environment are the physical, chemical, and biological systems with which clients interact. Environmental stimuli challenge development and maturation of clients.
Health
Health is a dynamic state of equilibrium between clients and their environments. Health can vary on a continuum from optimum health to ill health, including death. Optimum health is defined as the presence of structural and functional integrity reflecting a client's biological, psychological, sociocultural, and spiritual potential. Health is dependent on the client's ability, willingness, and resources to meet and engage the environment in a manner that potentiates optimal health. Actual and perceived health potentials depend on value systems, cultural influences, educational experiences, genetics and variables which are environmental, biological, psychological, sociocultural, and spiritual in nature. As these variables shift and change, so does the health status of clients.
Nursing
Nursing is an autonomous and caring profession which assists clients to protect, maintain, improve or gain optimal levels of health. Nursing is a science and an art with the goal of providing for the health and healing needs of clients. While respecting clients' rights to self-determination, nursing provides holistic care during health, illness, and death. Nursing influences health and healing through relationship centered care. Shared understandings of health and illness are necessary for therapeutic nurse-client relationships.
Baccalaureate Nursing Education
Preparation for professional nursing practice requires the broad, liberal, general and professional education provided by baccalaureate education in nursing. Baccalaureate nursing education develops the intellectual skills of critical thinking, analytic inquiry and problem solving which are essential to independent action, collaboration and decision making. Baccalaureate graduates are prepared to function as nursing care clinicians, health care managers, change agents, health advocates, teachers, counselors and leaders. Baccalaureate graduates must be decision-makers, critical thinkers and risk-takers who are proactive in a changing health care practice arena. Baccalaureate graduates must be responsible and accountable for their current and future practice.
Teaching facilitates the learning of essential knowledge, skills and roles. Teaching is a cooperative, collaborative venture with the learner for the purpose of promoting competence. Nursing education is a transformative process for students and teachers and is a process of reciprocal accountability and responsibility. Both student and teacher share responsibility for the teaching and learning milieu. Through teaching-learning roles created with students, the teacher serves as a guide, role model, facilitator and coach. The student is aided in interpreting nursing science as well as biological, sociological, psychological and physical sciences. The education process in nursing provides exposure to a variety of conceptual frameworks in the discipline and develops an appreciation of the professional literature. Grounded in educational theories, the teacher fosters critical thinking in order to produce graduates who seek problem resolutions to legal; ethical; and predictable and unpredictable health care situations.
Baccalaureate nursing education fosters the professional socialization of students capable of responding proactively to change within society and promoting professional nursing practice. Professional socialization requires exposure to professional role models; opportunities to participate in pre-professional and professional associations; and practice in leadership, affiliation, caring and advocacy skills.
The faculty is committed to the education of baccalaureate-prepared nurses within the region who will contribute to the general health of the region's diverse populations. Baccalaureate nursing graduates of Eastern Kentucky University are prepared to function as generalists in a dynamic health care system. Graduates are prepared to pursue lifelong learning; function in a variety of health care settings and delivery models; as well as specialize at the graduate level.
Graduate Nursing Education
Preparation for advanced nursing practice is obtained through master's education in nursing and builds on the Bachelor's of Science Degree in Nursing. Master's education in nursing further develops the intellectual skills of critical thinking, analytic inquiry, and problem solving which were initiated in baccalaureate nursing education.
Building upon the foundations laid by baccalaureate education, the faculty recognizes evaluation of theory and research in nursing and related fields is imperative for graduates to incorporate into their knowledge base as they assume advanced practice roles. A higher level of synthesis, analysis, and application of advanced nursing practice knowledge is incorporated into the roles of clinician, change agent, health advocate, teach, counselor, and leader which were introduced at the baccalaureate level. The integration of the additional knowledge, theory, and skills of advanced nursing practice is obtained through specialized master's nursing education, in which the client focus is either on the community or family members throughout the life-span. The graduate develops professional concepts and behaviors in order to function in an advanced practice role.
Master's prepared practitioners must collaborate with other health disciplines in providing innovative health care delivery. They do so as full partners, sharing the responsibility for delineating society's health coals and developing health care policy. In addition, they function as advocates for the health care consumer who has right to health care, regardless of social class or background.
The faculty recognizes the University's rural geographical setting which creates unique health care concerns. The faculty is committed to the education of advanced practice nurses who will contribute to the general health of the region's rural population. The educational process at the Master's level is collegial in nature and promotes independent, self-directed learning and self-evaluation. Students are required to communicate the results of their discovery, analysis, and synthesis of advanced nursing knowledge both orally and in writing to prepare them for their increased responsibility in making contributions to the knowledge base of the discipline of nursing. Graduate education, which is promoted through intensive study no only in the discipline of nursing but also through courses in supporting disciplines, stimulates the learner to a lifetime of personal and professional development. As baccalaureate nursing education serves as a foundation for graduate study in nursing at the master's level, so master's nursing education serves as a foundation for doctoral study in nursing.
Explore a Career in Nursing
What career opportunities are available in nursing?
After graduation with a Bachelor of Science degree and successful completion of the registered nurse licensure exam, you will be prepared to begin the practice of nursing in a variety of settings such as:
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community health
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occupational health centers
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mental health agencies
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rehabilitation facilities
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nursing homes
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family planning centers
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crisis centers
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hospitals
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clinics such as outpatient surgery and others
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home health agencies
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Our graduates serve in a wide variety of leadership and management positions providing vital clinical care throughout the challenging and complex health care delivery system. Some of our graduates have entered the armed forces as commissioned officers or have served as missionary nurses, nurses with the ship HOPE, Vista, or other humanitarian organizations. Other graduates have assumed leadership positions as unit managers, supervisors, and directors of nursing in hospitals, home health agencies, nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities, and mental or community health centers. Other graduates, with additional educational preparation, have become educators and researchers.
Education makes the difference in your direct care of clients, in your leadership and management potential, and in the variety of opportunities available to you. Start your career with an educational foundation that will allow you to grow into your potential and pave the way for future graduate study in nursing at the Master's level.
Graduate study in nursing prepares you for advanced nursing practice as a clinical specialist or nurse practitioner. Master's degree options available at Eastern Kentucky University are the Rural Health Family Nurse Practitioner and the Rural Community Health Care Nursing Specialist which has an optional functional area in administration.
What courses do I need as preparation for a career in nursing?
If you are in high school, you should take college-preparation courses. You will need a strong foundation in English literature and composition, mathematics including algebra, citizenship (government), biology & chemistry, sociology, psychology, economics, & typing including using computers. Nurses need to be well-rounded individuals so courses in art, drama or humanities, speech and a foreign language are also important as a foundation for college studies in these areas. Participation in clubs and service organizations will also give you skills that will be helpful to you in your college studies and in your career such as leadership, public speaking, organizing and managing projects, working with groups, and many other skills.. Your college preparation will include a balance of general education/support courses and nursing courses.
What does it take to be a nurse?
Nursing is a challenging and rewarding career that requires more than the desire to help people or the ability to do technical tasks. Nurses of today and tomorrow will need a unique blend of many skills in order to function well in an ever-changing health care environment. Nurses must be able to to think and solve problems, often in high-pressure situations. Nurses must be able to collaborate with a team of professionals and para-professionals. Nurses must be able to communicate well verbally and in writing. Nurses must be able to teach individuals, families, and groups of people from all walks of life how to meet their self-care and health needs. Nurses need to be good managers of resources, including time and people. Nurses need to be knowledgeable of politics and how changes come about in our society and in the world. Nurses need to be committed to continual learning throughout their career as new knowledge becomes available. Most essential though is that nurses must be able to show people who may be in very difficult circumstances that they care. However, caring is not enough. Nurses must be knowledgeable of the art and science of nursing in order to care effectively.
To learn more about a nursing career, explore these sites:
Visit some of our
clinical agencies where students apply what they are learning in the classroom to the care of clients of various ages, health states, and cultures.
Learning Facilities
Clinical Nursing Center
Our students begin learning clinical skills during the second year of the program. A state-of-the-art Nursing Skills Lab provides simulated clinical facilities for practicing physical assessment and other technical skills needed for safe practice in hospitals and other clinical settings. Nursing faculty guide the student's learning of skills in small-group and individual learning sessions.
The Nursing Skills Lab is staffed with a full-time Registered Nurse and several student assistants who coordinate the needs of both the BS and the Associate Degree nursing programs. They also are available to assist students during practice sessions as needed. The lab is available for students to practice at times other than scheduled class sessions.
Health Science Learning Resource Center
Students also have available the
Health Science Learning Resource Center that is staffed by a full-time director and several full-time staff. This state-of-art center includes a computer lab, extensive audio and videotape programs, computer simulation programs, anatomical charts & models, and resource books. The resource center is open in the evenings and on weekends to support student learning.
Other Facilities
Once students are admitted to the clinical learning sequence, lab sessions are scheduled in hospitals, health departments, home health agencies and other facilities to support the student's development of clinical skills. Students are guided by expert faculty and agency clinicians as they develop their critical thinking and technical skills. Students are placed in numerous large and small hospitals in the region under the direct supervision of clinical faculty. Clinical learning groups usually include about 10 students so there is adequate attention, guidance & supervision from clinical faculty.
Students are expected to demonstrate increasing competence in clinical decision making and technical skills as they progress through the program. During the final semester of the program, the student is placed with an experienced RN preceptor in a clinical area of interest for intensive clinical study and practice. This capstone experience helps the student synthesize prior learning and prepare for practice in a work setting. Both students and employers tell us how helpful this experience is for preparing our students to function well in the challenging work environment of today
Clinical Agencies
Hospitals
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Baptist Regional Medical Center
Corbin, KY
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Berea Hospital Incorporated
Berea, KY
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Rockcastle Hospital Incorporated
Mt Vernon, KY
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UK Healthcare Good Samaritan Hospital
Lexington, KY
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Central Baptist Hospital
Lexington, KY
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Ridge Behavioral Health System
Lexington, KY
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St Joseph Hospital
Lexington, KY
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Clark Regional Medical Center
Winchester, KY
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University Of Kentucky-Med Center
Lexington, KY
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Eastern State Hospital
Lexington, KY
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US Veterans Medical Center
Lexington, KY
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Ephraim Mc Dowell Medical Center
Danville, KY
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University Of Ky Children's Hospital
Lexington, KY
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Pattie A Clay Hospital
Richmond, KY
Other health care agencies are used, including health departments, clinics, and other sites.
Distance Education Resources
RN to BSN Classes
We offer classes for RN to BSN students using Interactive TV (ITV) & online courses. Our distant sites are: Corbin, Danville, Hazard, Manchester, & Richmond. Where EKU has an extended campus center, the class meets in one of the classrooms at the center.
MSN Classes
Classes are offered as much as possible on Interactive TV (ITV), which provides interactive video and audio between the sites at Richmond, Corbin, Danville, Manchester, and Hazard. Some courses are also offered online. In determining the site locations, consideration will be given to such factors as student location, potential enrollment, and faculty availability. To the degree that is possible, the program will be offered in the outreach areas as well as on campus; however, students are guaranteed neither class nor clinical offerings at any particular site or location.
Links to EKU Centers
Links to Grants & Scholarship Information
Many dollars that could help you further your education go unused each year, because no one asks for them.
Begin your search early and visit these sites to see if there is financial aid, scholarships or grants for which you can apply.
EKU Links
Nursing Scholarships
