About the School of Nursing
History
Nursing at MTSU began in 1966 as a two-year associate degree program. It graduated a total of 799 students, with the last class finishing in 1990. The present four-year B.S.N. program enrolled its first junior year Nursing class in fall 1988. The first class of 23 students graduated in May 1990.
Mission
The mission of Middle Tennessee State University School of Nursing is to provide excellence
in nursing education by preparing individuals to meet the dynamic and complex health
care needs of society. Through robust academic programs, the School of Nursing demonstrates
its commitment to the art and science of nursing.
Goals
The School of Nursing carries out its mission in ways that are consistent with the Academic Master Plan of the University.
Master Plan Goal 1: MTSU will advance academic quality through excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service and the celebration of MTSU’s strengths.
School of Nursing Goal 1: Maintain and enhance the academic quality of the School of Nursing through the accreditation
and reaccreditation of all programs. 
The School of Nursing is committed to excellence in teaching and targets continuous improvement in its curriculum, faculty, students, and resources. The School of Nursing supports faculty development through several campus programs and rewards initiatives that promote academic quality.
MTSU’s Learning, Teaching, and Innovative Technology Center (LT&ITC) provides a resource for faculty mentoring as well as guidance for teaching, technology integration, scholarly writing groups, and opportunities to develop a career plan for success in academics.
Recruitment of a diverse student population with high academic promise and the potential for success as professional nurses remains a priority.
Preparing graduates for professional practice requires a commitment to continually assess and expand technology in the classroom and in online courses. The School of Nursing continuously looks for opportunities to enhance the facilitation of student learning, thus addressing the shortage of baccalaureate and master’s prepared registered nurses.
Master Plan Goal 2: MTSU will promote student success and individual responsibility for accomplishments through a community dedicated to student-centered learning.
School of Nursing Goal 2: Create a positive environment to support excellence in advising, teaching, and learning.
The Nursing faculty are committed to the academic advisement and professional development of our students. Students are mentored in scholarly endeavors and professional activities that focus on the socialization of the baccalaureate and master’s prepared nurse. The school is also responsive to the professional development needs of practicing nurses by offering continuing education programs to our community partners.
Examples of recent initiatives to enhance student success include strengthening of admission and progression standards, curricular revisions, increased rigor in advising processes, and the implementation of an in-house tutoring program for Nursing students and ongoing monitoring of student progress by individually assigned college advisors and course professors. Students falling below established standards are contacted via email by their college advisor and course professors.
The School of Nursing Student Success Committee also collaborates with campus housing on a living-learning community for Nursing students, which facilitates communication, collaboration, and mentoring among them. We also encourage our students to take advantage of the University Writing Center, which can help them enhance their skills in preparing required writing assignments.
Master Plan Goal 3: MTSU will develop purposeful and sustainable partnering relationships and outreach.
School of Nursing Goal 3: Maintain partnerships with health care agencies to offer quality clinical and volunteer experiences for Nursing students, adding agency partnerships as appropriate.
School of Nursing Goal 4: Improve partnerships with health care agencies/interdisciplinary groups to establish and/or maintain research opportunities for faculty.
Believing that the recipients of patient care are the ultimate customers of the School
of Nursing and thereby the University, the School of Nursing relies heavily on its
strategic partnerships with area health care providers and agencies to support the
art of nursing. Nursing faculty incorporate the importance of professional collaboration,
experiential learning, and community service into all phases of the curriculum.
Our community partnerships provide ample clinical experiences and opportunities for the merging of knowledge and competencies into critical thinking and clinical reasoning. MTSU School of Nursing partners with more than 200 health care facilities in Tennessee to provide experiential learning opportunities for our students in a variety of clinical settings, including but not limited to acute care, long-term care, primary care clinics, rehabilitation, schools, public health departments, mental health facilities, hospice organizations, and industry.
Students actively engage with community partners to provide nursing care in response to community health care needs. Examples of this include participation in University health and wellness fairs, hosting a COVID-19 vaccine clinic, manning the triage phone system for Nashville’s COVID Crisis Command Center, going on Remote Access Mission trips to provide medical care in rural areas of Tennessee, helping with the University flu vaccine clinic, and volunteering at the Nashville Rescue Mission.
