New Nursing Degree Program for Northwest Florida
To improve the percentage of the population in Northwest Florida who have a bachelor degree new programs in nursing and applied science have been announced.
The new four year degree programs in nursing and applied science will begin in 2011 in Pensacola Junior College who will offer workforce baccalaureate degrees with the first enrollment beginning in January of next year for 30 students and then another 20 student the following fall.
These are brand new courses and the college is currently recruiting the faculty although they already have two doctoral faculty in place for the nursing programs. They have also already secured $250,000 in funding for these programs from the Senate Committee on Higher Education Appropriations although they believe the start up costs to actually be quite minimal and they already have much of the infrastructure in place for these courses. They still need to get approvals from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges to begin but they are confident this will all work out positive for them.
Ed Meadows the PJC president said that “with only 24 percent of the Northwest Florida population having a bachelor’s degree compared to 29 percent in the state and 32 percent in the country, these programs will be a boost for this area”
PJC nursing college already offers a range of qualifications for new nurses including Nursing Associate Degree RN, Nursing Assisting, Perioperative Nursing, Practical Nursing, Registered Nursing (Career Mobility For LPN), Registered Nursing (Paramedic To RN) and Surgical Technology.
Today, PJC serves about 30,000 students in Northwest Florida and Southern Alabama – offering full-service campuses in Milton, Pensacola and Warrington, as well as the Pensacola Downtown Center. More than 37 percent of graduating seniors from local high schools begin college life at PJC. PJC held its first day of class Sept. 13, 1948, as Florida’s first public junior college