Department of Undergraduate Nursing
Winona State’s Department of Undergraduate Nursing been providing high-quality nursing education for more than 50 years. Our competitive program has a 96% job placement rate, and complementary curriculum of the Minnesota Public Health Nurse Certification.
If you are interested in pursuing a degree in nursing, learn more about the opportunities our program has to offer.
The pre-licensure nursing program is offered on both Winona & Rochester campuses. View the Pre-Licensure Program Brochure (PDF) to learn more.
We guarantee admission for students with exceptional ACT/SAT scores who earn excellent college grades.
Our students’ first-time NCLEX pass rates are consistently at or above the national average.
Our simulation spaces promotes direct, independent student learning and collaboration between nursing students and faculty mentors.
We partner with numerous healthcare providers in the region to provide hands-on clinical experiences for students.
The mission of the WSU Department of Undergraduate Nursing is to advance the health and well-being of our communities through collaboration with interprofessional partners and innovative faculty to create diverse-minded learners.
The WSU Department of Undergraduate Nursing will be champions for innovative educational practices to enhance interprofessional partnerships and learning in our communities.
As faculty and staff, we aspire to:
- Lead the region in nursing education through innovative learning practices
- Cultivate an engaging, inclusive learning environment
- Enrich our diverse communities through meaningful partnerships to meet mutually identified goals
Graduate skilled compassionate nurses who are prepared to address evolving industry needsaculty and staff, we aspire to:
- Lead the region in nursing education through innovative learning practices
- Cultivate an engaging, inclusive learning environment
- Enrich our diverse communities through meaningful partnerships to meet mutually identified goals
Graduate skilled compassionate nurses who are prepared to address evolving industry needs
As faculty, staff and students, we believe in:
- Inquiry: Furthering a spirit of curiosity to promote engaged learning that results in a holistic approach to client care
- Inclusivity: Fostering advocacy and embracing diversity in all aspects of teaching, learning, and caring for clients
- Innovation: Promoting a collaborative, transformative, and resourceful environment to cultivate lifelong learning
- Ethics and Accountability: Developing moralistic behaviors to enhance responsible, equitable, and honorable decisions and actions
- Advocacy: Providing compassionate, respectful, client-centered care
Philosophy
The undergraduate and graduate curriculum are based on a shared philosophy that views the professional nurse as an individual with a minimum of a baccalaureate degree in nursing who may also possess a master’s degree or a doctorate.
The philosophy of the Department of Nursing states that the professional nurse provides care that is:
Person-centered care is an approach in which individuals are viewed as whole persons. It involves advocacy, empowerment, and respecting the person’s autonomy, voice, self-determination, and participation in decision-making.
Persons are defined as the participants in nursing care or services. They may be individuals, families, groups, communities, aggregates, organizations, systems, and populations.
Persons may seek or receive nursing interventions related to health promotion, health maintenance, disease prevention, illness management, and end-of-life care.
Depending on the context or setting, persons may be referred to as patients, clients, residents, consumers, customers and/or organizations of nursing care or services.
Relationship-centered care values and attends to the relationships that form the context of compassionate care, including those among and between:
- practitioners and recipients of care
- individuals as they care for themselves and others
- practitioners and communities in which they practice
- healthcare practitioners across various professions
- administrators and managers as they set the environment and resources for care
Evidence includes research findings and their interpretation, practitioner and consumer expertise and preferences. The nurse draws upon these types of evidence to inform critical thinking and decision-making.
Respectful care is based upon mutual relationships that embrace diversity and promote dignity and choice. Diversity includes the range of human variation that professional nurses encounter.
Age, race, gender, disability, ethnicity, nationality, religious and spiritual beliefs, sexual orientation, political beliefs, economic status, native language, and geographical background are included.
Program Outcomes
Our students will provide holistic care across the lifespan within diverse populations and settings. At the completion of the baccalaureate program, students will acquire the following program outcomes:
- Proficient Clinical Reasoner: Integrates clinical judgement and reasoning by questioning, analyzing, interpreting, and inferring to provide evidence-based, inclusive, safe, and high-quality client care
- Effective Communicator: Demonstrates effective professional communication with individuals, interprofessional partners, and communities of interest to build relationships and advance health and well-being of our communities
- Ethical Decision Maker: Integrates ethical principles and advocacy for decision-making to provide safe and effective care
- Excellent Provider of Care: Implements the art of nursing skills to perform holistic assessments which informs client care based on mutual health goals and evidence-based practice
- Health Systems Leader: Proactively and continuously participates in the complex health care system to impact the health safety, quality, and equity of diverse clients and communities across the lifespan
Accreditation
Winona State University’s undergraduate nursing program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
The baccalaureate degree program in nursing, master’s degree program in nursing, Doctor of Nursing Practice program, and post-graduate APRN (Advanced Practice Registered Nurse) certificate program, at Winona State University are accredited by the:
The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education has accredited the Winona State University Baccalaureate Degree Programs and Master’s programs in Nursing through June 2033. Doctor of Nursing Practice programs and post-graduate APRN certificate programs are accredited through June 2030.
The WSU Nursing program is approved by the Minnesota Board of Nursing. The Baccalaureate and Master’s programs received continuing program approval in the fall of 2023. The next consideration for continuing approval by the Board of Nursing will be after the 2032 Commission for Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) accreditation visit and when the CCNE board action is complete.
Graduates of the traditional 4-year, pre-licensure program (Generic Option) are eligible to write the professional nurse licensure examination (NCLEX). Generic Option and RN to BS Completion graduates are eligible to apply for Public Health Nursing Certification in Minnesota and may also apply to the Board of Teaching for a school nurse license in Minnesota after they obtain Public Health Nurse certification. Graduates are capable of giving professional nursing care in first-level nursing positions and have a base for graduate study.
Department of Education Disclosures
As of July 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of Education implemented new regulations that professional nursing programs (RN and APRN) must adhere to: Regulation 34 CFR 668.43 (a)(5)(v).
In compliance with this regulation, WSU is providing the following information:
- WSU’s nursing curriculum meets state educational requirements for professional licensure in the states/jurisdictions of: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Island, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
- WSU’s undergraduate nursing curriculum does not meet the state educational requirements for professional licensure in the states/jurisdictions of: None.
- WSU has not made the determination if the undergraduate nursing curriculum meets state educational requirements in the states/jurisdictions of: American Samoa, Guam, and Michigan.
This information has been gathered from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) website and was last updated on July 1, 2022.
WSU assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in the information contained in this resource. It is your responsibility to verify accuracy by visiting the NCSBN website.
Winona, MN 55987
507.457.5120
859 30th Avenue SE
Rochester, MN 55904
507.285.7349