Nursing students benefit from concurrent enrollment program

Kimbarley Eggert described the College of Nursing & Health Innovation’s fall convocation as emotional because it “marked the end of one avenue of learning and opened the door to another.”

Eggert is one of eight students in the college's first graduating cohort of the Concurrent Enrollment Associate-Baccalaureate Nursing Program. These students earn their bachelor of science in nursing degree from Arizona State University while concurrently pursing their associate of applied science in nursing degree from Maricopa Community Colleges (MCC). The MCC classes are taken in person while the ASU classes are taken online.

A counselor at Glendale Community College first suggested the concurrent enrollment program to Eggert when she was registering for her pre-requisite classes. Later a professor also suggested the program and after Eggert was accepted to the MCC nursing program, she was invited to a concurrent enrollment program (CEP) orientation session.

“I was interested in the program because it was competitive,” she said. “Entrance into the program was based on grade point average instead of placement on a list. The CEP program provided me with the opportunity to enter the program quicker than the typical wait for a community college program.”

Concurrent enrollment students take four semesters of coursework at both MCC and ASU. In the summertime, they focus on completing just ASU courses. Patricia Harris, associate director of the RN-BSN program at ASU, said the concurrent enrollment program is a great avenue for students with excellent academic histories.

“The community colleges provide curriculum that meets board of nursing criteria for licensure as a registered nurse,” she said. “The ASU CEP curriculum is designed to provide online additive content focusing on professionalism, the critical use of research, community, global health, management and leadership. The curriculum is identical to the RN-BSN coursework but the course assignments have been designed to meet the needs of nursing students and new graduates, rather than experienced nurses.”

Eggert said both colleges coordinated the classes in a way that was manageable for students.

“The BSN program complements the AAS (Associate of Applied Science) course work and offers educational opportunities that will bolster my professional career,” said Eggert. “It provides experiences that opened my eyes to the circumstances of my community and connected me with the conditions of others globally.”

Eggert completed her associate's degree in May and passed her National Council Licensure Examination in June. In fall 2014 Eggert worked on her final ASU classes and capstone project. She was also inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Today, she is a registered nurse at Banner Heart Hospital’s Cardiac Progressive Care Unit.

“In the near future I would like to become a nurse manager and see myself volunteering to work on various committees to help improve nursing processes and patient experiences and outcomes,” Eggert said. “Ultimately, I would like to return to ASU to receive my master’s degree.”

Written by Kaly Nasiff