Campaign for Accelerated BSN

In our state, as many as 3,200 of the 4,000 highly qualified students applying each year for admission to Oregon’s nursing programs are turned away. The industry demand for baccalaureate-educated nurses continues to increase with statistics indicating a shortage of 25,000 nurses.

In 2022, we launched an on-campus, face-to-face Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program. This provides the most accelerated opportunity for nursing education in Oregon, allowing people who already have a bachelor’s degree in other applicable fields to become qualified as nurses in just twelve months. With other nursing education programs at capacity and an increasing demand for nurses, this program will be a pipeline to fill the regional nursing shortage, providing a minimum of thirty-two bachelor’s-educated nurses every year.

The cornerstone of nursing education at Bushnell is the new nursing skills lab, serving as a
complete clinical space for students to practice and train. Although the program is accelerated, there is no shortage of clinical hours, a feature our partners at McKenzie-Willamette, PeaceHealth, Kaiser, and others understand as critical to fully prepare a nurse in acute care.

Bushnell has a heritage of healing. Between 1908 and 1936, the University constructed and operated Pacific Christian Hospital—known today as PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center. In 2015, Nursing returned to the university with our RN to BSN program. A Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) followed in 2018, with a focus on leadership in health systems and nursing education. Now this pre-licensure, 12-month, face-to-face Accelerated BSN program links our future with our 1922 founding of the University District Medical Center.