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Nurses help individuals, families, and groups to promote, maintain, or restore optimal health within the context of their environments. Nursing practice requires substantial specialized knowledge of nursing and related scientific, behavioral, and humanistic disciplines. Nursing also involves the development and implementation of strategies of care to accomplish defined goals and the evaluation of responses to care and treatment. Nursing includes the performance of services that promote and support optimal functioning across the life span, collaboration with other members of the health team, health counseling and teaching, the provision of comfort measures, teaching and supervising others, and participation in research contributing to the expansion of nursing knowledge.

The many areas of nursing include community health nursing, parent-child nursing, medical-surgical nursing, rehabilitation nursing, and mental health nursing. As patient care has become more complex and nurses’ responsibilities have expanded, a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Nursing is essential for today’s professional nurse.

There are three undergraduate tracks in the School of Nursing. The traditional undergraduate curriculum is designed for entering freshmen. Students are admitted directly into the Nursing major for each fall starting date and are notified of their acceptance by the university’s Undergraduate Admissions office.

A second means to pursue undergraduate study in the School of Nursing is through the second bachelor’s track for students who hold a baccalaureate in a field other than nursing. The third curriculum, the RN to BS track, is for students who are already registered nurses (RN) but lack a baccalaureate degree. See www.umass.edu/nursing for complete program descriptions, application, and entrance dates for each of these programs.

All eligible students may apply to either the full Commonwealth Honors College curriculum (General Studies plus Advanced Scholarship) or only to the Advanced Scholarship track, i.e., this option is available to students whether or not they have participated in the Commonwealth Honors College General Studies option. For Advanced Scholarship, Commonwealth Honors College sets the minimum criteria for Departmental Honors, i.e., a 3.400 or higher final overall GPA, and earned grades of B or higher in four departmentally-focused honors courses, including the capstone experience and its manuscript properly formatted to Commonwealth Honors College standards. Actual admissions criteria and requirements for completion of Departmental Honors vary by department. For details on this department's honors standards, contact the department's Honors Program Director or see www.honors.umass.edu/departmentalhonors.

The requirements of the programs are described in detail in the Nursing major section elsewhere in this Guide and on the Nursing website, www.umass.edu/nursing. Program changes are posted on the Nursing website.