WCU Graduate Nursing Programs Are on U.S. News’ Best Graduate Schools List
In U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 graduate school rankings, West Chester’s graduate nursing programs are positioned
high on the charts: #176 in Best Nursing Schools: Master's (MSN) and #112 in Best Nursing Schools: Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP).
WCU’s DNP is online except for the first course, which is a two-day immersion experience on campus. It was WCU’s first doctoral program.
Schools are ranked according to their performance across a set of 14 widely accepted indicators of excellence — seven of which are common to both master’s and doctoral programs — that include faculty participation in nursing practice as well as research activity. In addition, peer assessment was heavily weighted in graduate nursing school evaluations for both categories. In fall 2018, 44 percent of the nursing school deans and deans of graduate studies at nursing schools who were surveyed responded to U.S. News’ request to rate the quality of accredited DNP programs. A school’s score is the average of all the respondents who rated its DNP program.
The mission of WCU’s nursing programs is to provide the highest quality education to prepare students for advanced nursing practice and education roles and prepare them to serve diverse populations by providing evidence-based quality nursing care. WCU faculty, many of whom are advance practice nurses, educate students of WCU’s MSN programs and the DNP to become leaders within the nursing profession.
At the undergraduate level, WCU’s nursing students propelled the University to first-place ranking out of 1,922 programs with regard to pass rates in the United States among programs that had 10 or more graduates take the National Council Licensing Examination (NCLEX-RN) from April through September 2018.
Visit the nursing department for more information on all programs.