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Already popular at campuses in Burlington, Mass., and Charlotte, N.C., the accelerated nursing program will launch in Fall River, Mass., next year.
For over 20 years, Amanda Choflet has been a nurse.
And for over 20 years, the dean of the School of Nursing in Northeastern’s Bouve College of Health Sciences has witnessed a nursing shortage — a shortage that is especially acute in under-resourced areas such as southeast Massachusetts and northern Rhode Island.
Northeastern is helping to address the problem by launching an accelerated degree program in Fall River, Massachusetts, with a goal of increasing the talent pool in nursing.
The four-semester program is already popular at Northeastern’s campuses in Burlington, Massachusetts, and Charlotte, North Carolina, and uses a hybrid approach that combines coursework with experiential simulation labs and clinical rotations at top area health care facilities.
Designed for professionals with bachelor’s degrees, and transfer students with at least 62 college credits, the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program caters to lifelong learners who want to move into a career in nursing.
Students enrolled at the Fall River location will benefit from Northeastern’s local partnerships with health care providers and community partners.
“We are going to build a really strong and meaningful collaboration with the local community in Fall River to develop excellent, practice-ready nurses that drive positive change in health care delivery in the area,” says Choflet, a clinical professor at Northeastern.
The Fall River program will enroll 35 students in three cohorts every year and will be affiliated with Prima Care physicians group. The Northeastern campus will also be physically attached to Prima Care, a short drive from St. Anne’s hospital.
“All health care is team care,” Choflet says. “So, having a physician group acting as a day-one collaborator in building out this interdisciplinary space and kind of interdisciplinary framework for clinical education for nurses is essential to the success of those nurses once they get into the clinical environment.”
Students will also have access to Bioskills of the North East medical training center — an interdisciplinary training lab for health specialties.
“Being at Bioskills of the North East is going to open up a number of additional doors for us,” Choflet says. “PrimaCare sits on one side of the door and then our campus sits on the other side of the door. Our students will literally be able to drive a short distance down the street to get to the hospital. It is a truly interdisciplinary environment.”
The Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program has proven popular with students, including John Zuzenak, who taught middle and high school science for 20 years before enrolling in the program in Burlington.
Zuzenak, who earned his nursing degree this week, says that the program allowed him to quickly transition to a new career while also accommodating his family responsibilities.
“Nursing is something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” he says. “But it was never the right time with my family responsibilities.”
He praised the real-world experience offered by Northeastern.
“The clinical placements and the clinical instructors I was placed with were definitely a strength of the program,” Zuzenak says. “I was able to work at exceptional hospitals under the supervision of really dedicated instructors. Every clinical rotation I had was an amazing experience, preparing me for my role as a nurse.”
Gloridalis Tolentino, a nursing student in Charlotte, likewise praised the clinical experience the program offered.
“I always felt like it was easier to understand certain objectives we were learning in class because I was also seeing them in person,” Tolentino says.
She also praised the professors in the program.
“Every professor I met truly cared so much for their specialty and the students,” Tolentino says. “The program 100% prepared me for life post-graduation.”
The Fall River-based program, which can be completed in four consecutive semesters, will launch in August 2025.
It has already started accepting applications.
“This is a great option for getting to a great job in an accelerated time frame,” Choflet says.