Nursing, BSN

Why major in nursing at Whitworth?

• Cultivate a sense of calling from day one. Our Christian nursing education helps you understand nursing as a vocation, giving you a "why" for your education. You will learn from faculty who honor the inherent worth of each patient and see how your presence and care can make a real difference in people's lives.
• Build essential nursing skills in a dedicated nursing education facility featuring state-of-the-art simulation and skills labs (opening fall 2027). Practice taking blood pressure, giving injections, starting IVs, performing wound care, and caring for high-fidelity manikins that "breathe," "bleed" and respond to treatment.
• Explore the vast landscape of specialties, settings and career paths available in nursing. You will learn about careers in various hospital settings, clinics, home health, nursing homes, hospice, psychiatric care and social service agencies.
• Learn from faculty who are deeply invested in your success and bring current clinical expertise into the classroom. Most instructors continue to practice nursing, and many bring students to see their work firsthand.
• Gain valuable real-world experience through a senior practicum in which you will work alongside a local nurse preceptor to assume the role of the nurse.
• Build lasting camaraderie with your peers in small, close-knit cohorts.
• Become who you're meant to be.

Our nursing grads make a difference (and get jobs)

With a bachelor of science in nursing, you will be eligible to sit for the NCLEX – the exam to become an RN. You will be able to work in hospitals, clinics, community health agencies, schools, prisons and industry.

Some areas in which a new RN can work include:

• Labor and delivery
• Newborn intensive care
• Pediatrics
• Medical/surgical units
• Intensive care
• Research
• Surgical services (OR, PACU)

Recent job placements

Whitworth has a long history of preparing future nurses through its former pre-nursing and dual degree nursing programs. Students of those programs now working in the field include:

• Mark Plummer, oncology RN, Providence Sacred Heart and Holy Family hospitals, Spokane
• Emily Fisher, surgical services RN, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children's Hospital, Spokane
• Michelle Bauman, NICU RN, Sacred Heart Medical Center, Spokane

Many RNs seek further education to become nurse practitioners, midwives, nurse anesthetists, nurse educators, nurse informaticists, nurse researchers and more. 

Opportunities outside the classroom

• Work with Spokane's uninsured and immigrant populations.
• Work with organizations addressing homelessness and addiction, refugee health programs, tribal health programs, and seniors living at Rockwood at Whitworth.
• Join the Student Nurses Club or participate in club leadership.
• Study abroad with nursing faculty during Jan Term.

What related majors can I explore?

• Biology
• Health science
• Sociology
• Psychology

Ask our faculty