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LHU to create school of nursing here

LOCK HAVEN — Lock Haven University will create a school of nursing at their Main Campus.

LHU’s current nursing program is based at their Clearfield Campus where 176 students are enrolled.

The expansion is due to an increasing demand for highly-qualified nurses in an ever-evolving healthcare environment, according to LHU President Robert Pignatello.

The move is influenced by current trends in healthcare, primarily the consolidation of major healthcare providers into large systems, which provide the groundwork to form mutually beneficial partnerships and pipelines for their workforce, he said.

The proposal and a resolution to establish a Lock Haven University School of Nursing — an administrative structure that provides for managing the challenges and capturing the opportunities in the current environment — was presented to the LHU trustees at their meeting on Friday afternoon.

The resolution was unanimously approved by the trustees.

The new nursing program puts in place managerial support that provides administrative benefit for both the Clearfield and Lock Haven campuses, brings nursing expertise to support the faculty in geographic and programmatic expansion and extends capacity for building industry partnerships and revenue generation.

“We feel there is a market here in Lock Haven that we can service,” Pignatello said.

Since 1991, when the university established the Clearfield Campus, LHU has provided comprehensive nursing education to students in the Clearfield region. LHU took in the Central Pennsylvania School of Nursing, an Registered Nurse diploma program operated by a consortium of four Clearfield area hospitals, and converted it to a two-year associate degree program in nursing (ASN).

The university has since added a gateway associate degree and online RN to BSN degree programs.

The nursing programs are accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN). They have served as the anchor of the Clearfield campus, representing approximately half of the enrollments and drawing primarily from Clearfield and immediate surrounding counties.

LHU administrators are excited about the prospective of establishing the school of nursing and believe the move will advance the expansion, stature, enrollment, resources and operation of the program, Pignatello said.

Lock Haven University offers 49 undergraduate majors and certifications with 47 minors and five graduate programs.

LHU is a member of Pennsylvania’s State System, the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. Its 14 universities offer more than 2,300 degree and certificate programs in more than 530 academic areas of study. Nearly 520,000 system alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

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