The Nursing Program is structured to prepare students for the role of a novice nurse in clinical practice. Upon completion of the program, students may register for the National Counsel Licensure Exam(NCLEX)-RN ®.

Expected Student Learning Outcomes

The purpose of The Citadel nursing program is to prepare nurses who are baccalaureate educated and are able to assume leadership roles within the healthcare team, providing quality and safe practice in a complex healthcare environment. Specifically, students will:

1. Apply foundations of nursing practice by incorporating theory and research-based knowledge using clinical judgments and critical thinking.
2. Promote evidence-based nursing care to gain a holistic understanding of the person, family, community, and population to guide nursing practice.
3. Apply a systems-based approach to population health and person-centered care, and its interface with health care in addressing disparities and needs.
4. Apply scholarship for clinical decision making based on disease process, diagnostics, and therapeutic modalities to improve or transform patient outcomes.
5. Develop a professional identity that supports the professionalism of nursing, its characteristics, and values.
6. Practice in an environment of collective learning, respect, and shared values through interprofessional and collaborative engagements.
7. Develop the capacity for principled leadership that incorporates an understanding of ethical, legal, and regulatory standards that guides nursing practice.

Progression Policy

To progress in the major, a student must:

• Successfully complete all nursing prerequisite courses.
• Must maintain a GPA of 2.7
• Achieve a grade of a B or better in science and nursing courses is highly preferred. At a minimum, the student must achieve a grade of a C in science and nursing courses.
• Demonstrate honor, duty and respect.
• Continue to meet Core Performance Requirements.
• Maintain compliance with all health and clinical agency requirements.
• Submit all College / Clinical agency requirements on time as directed by staff and / or faculty.

If a student fails to meet the required GPA of 2.7, they will be dismissed from the program. 

Students may repeat a nursing course one time during the program. When a student fails a nursing course, they are required to meet with the Department Head and to devise a remediation plan for future success.  If the student fails to meet the minimum grade requirement on the second attempt, they may not take the course again and cannot continue to progress through the program.

If a student fails two different nursing courses or two failures in the same course, they will be dismissed from the program.

The student must pass both the didactic and associated clinical course that are deemed as co-requisites. If the student fails either the didactic or the clinical component of the course, they will fail both classes, and will need to repeat both courses. The failure of the didactic and clinical course will constitute as one failure in the nursing program.

Term limits for the completion of the program is no longer than six years from the start of the first class. If a student exceeds the six-year time limit, they will be dismissed from the program. The student may reapply to the nursing program.

Major Academic Map

Click here to view the Academic Map for this major, which shows the courses and sequence.