The UNMC College of Nursing is ranked as one of the nation’s Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs by U.S. News & World Report.
In its 2018 Best Online Programs rankings released last week, the college’s graduate online nursing program is tied for 58th out of 147 schools, moving up from 61st in 2017 and 73rd in 2016.
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.
“This recognition that our graduate advanced practice and nurse leader programs offer such high quality online learning opportunities is important for today’s students and planning ahead for tomorrow’s lifelong learners,” said Juliann Sebastian, Ph.D., dean of the UNMC College of Nursing. “Our faculty use a learner-centered approach within an overall framework of evidence-based learning science. Online strategies provide an array of ways to use technology to support development of critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and innovative thinking.”
Gathering the information for the rankings required compiling a list of nursing schools offering master’s degree programs online and collecting data from the schools.
Five categories were used to rank the programs: student engagement, 30 percent; faculty credentials and training, 20 percent; peer reputation, 20 percent; admissions selectivity, 15 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.
“We are happy to again receive this recognition as one of the best in the nation for online learning for our graduate programs in nursing. We are dedicated to creating the best learning environments and continuous quality improvement,” 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.
“Not only is online education important to increasing the numbers of advanced practice nurses in remote and rural regions, but it also is becoming a preferred way of education for many students. Being recognized with this award demonstrates our progress toward meeting our goals for equivocal learning regardless of the setting,” she said.
In August 2016, the college’s Doctor of Nursing Practice ranked second in the U.S. by Value Colleges Top 50 Best Value Doctor of Nursing Practice Programs (of 265 programs).
In March 2016, the UNMC College of Nursing had two other programs ranked by U.S. News & World Report — the master’s program was ranked 46th of 249 programs in the country and the doctor of nursing practice (DNP) program was ranked 54th of 161 programs ranked.
For more information about the ranking and methodology, click here.
Congratulations!
This is awesome news! Congrats to all involved!