The UNMC College of Nursing is once again ranked as one of the nation’s Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs by U.S. News & World Report. In its 2019 Best Online Programs rankings released Tuesday, the college’s graduate online nursing program is tied with four other institutions for 42nd out of 170 ranked schools. It ranked 58th in 2018, 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, pediatric, acute care, family nurse practitioner, psychiatric mental health, and administration.
“This is the fourth straight year the college’s professional graduate programs have increased in the U.S. News rankings,” said Juliann Sebastian, Ph.D., dean of the UNMC College of Nursing. “The college is now in the top 25 percent of ranked online graduate programs. Our students and alumni can be proud of the high quality education in the professional graduate programs, and this ranking is one indicator of the quality that others see.
“Thanks go to the faculty, staff, and clinical preceptors who design, implement, and support excellence in professional graduate education and to our stellar students and alumni, who bring talent, dedication, and the highest level of professionalism to their work.”
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 and faculty engagement, 30 percent; faculty credentials and training, 20 percent; opinions of experts, 20 percent; student excellence, 15 percent; and student services and technology, 15 percent.
“Our move up in the rankings is a testament to faculty and for the hard work of students embracing the online learning culture,” 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.
“Accessibility to online programs addresses the shortage of nurses in rural areas and allows students to stay in their communities and engage with others. Using technology-based learning modalities and online programs are important to our state, where we have a large number of rural primary care nurses who may not be able to travel to an urban area for education.”
For more information about the ranking and methodology, click here.