Courses & Curriculum

What Bethel Graduates Are Prepared to Do

Graduates of the program are prepared to:

• Deliver safe, competent, evidence-based care as a professional nurse generalist
• Use clinical reasoning and current research to improve patient outcomes
• Provide holistic, culturally competent care to individuals, families, and communities
• Act as an advocate for patients, making their care and well-being the highest priority
• Communicate and collaborate effectively across healthcare teams
• Take on leadership in the ongoing improvement of quality care
• Practice with a commitment to professional excellence and lifelong learning

The full degree is built in two parts: the general education and prerequisite foundation, followed by the nursing major. Together they form a complete four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

General Education and Nursing Prerequisites (60 credit hours)

The foundation covers college writing, math, the natural and social sciences, humanities, and religion, along with the science prerequisites every nursing student needs: Human Anatomy and Physiology I and II, Microbiology, General Chemistry, Statistics, Nutrition, and Human Growth and Development.

The Nursing Major (63 credit hours)

The nursing coursework moves through four semesters and a final practicum, building from foundational concepts to advanced practice. Delivery formats are noted below.

Pathophysiology for the Transitioning LPN. Builds the knowledge and understanding of human disease using a body systems approach, covering causes, risk factors, and the long-term impact of common illnesses.

Transitions to Professional Nursing Practice. A bridge to baccalaureate practice that explores the expanding roles and concepts shaping nursing today, including nursing theory, clinical reasoning, evidence-based practice, informatics, and professional development.

Advanced Adult Health Assessment. Builds on the assessment skills learned in your LPN program, guiding you to distinguish normal from abnormal findings while considering each patient’s psychosocial and cultural background.

Pharmacology for the Transitioning LPN. Reinforces the principles of safe medication administration and expands into the actions, interactions, and nursing implications of intravenous and chemotherapeutic medications.

Nursing Care of the Adult Client I and II. A series that develops the clinical judgment needed to care for adults with increasingly complex illnesses across a variety of settings, integrating pathophysiology, pharmacology, and physiology. Each course includes a clinical component.

Nursing Care of the Person with Mental Illness. Focuses on psychosocial adaptation and care for people with mental health disorders, with a clinical component in the psychosocial setting.

Research in Nursing. An overview of quantitative and qualitative research and the baccalaureate nurse’s role as a critical consumer of evidence for practice.

Nursing Care of Families and Children. Family-centered care from conception through adolescence, covering maternal-child health and the chronic illnesses that affect the family unit, with a clinical experience caring for mothers, infants, and children.

Population, Community, and Public Health Nursing. Prepares you for entry-level community and population health practice, with a clinical component focused on health promotion and disease prevention at the community level.

Leading and Managing in Professional Nursing. Examines leadership and management in nursing, including delegation, prioritization, time management, and the economic and regulatory forces that shape quality care, with a leadership-focused clinical component.

Professional Nursing Capstone Practicum. Under faculty direction and the guidance of a preceptor, you synthesize everything you have learned and step into the role of a novice baccalaureate nurse.