College of Nursing and Allied Health
Dean's Message
Welcome to the University of St. Francis College of Nursing & Allied Health website! Change is a constant at USF and within our college. It is a vibrant, challenging and intellectually stimulating place to learn. Our college has eight distinct programs in the health professions: an undergraduate and graduate nursing program (entry level BSN, RN-BSN Fast Track and MSN), a master's physician assistant program, and undergraduate programs in radiography, radiation therapy, nuclear medicine and medical technology.
Our health professions programs are fully accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, Inc. (ARC-PA), and the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology (JRCERT).
The nation is facing a critical shortage of nurses and allied health professionals. We at USF are striving to help alleviate this shortage by educating motivated students to successfully complete our baccalaureate and masters programs in one of the above healthcare fields.
We offer a MSN Family Nursing Practitioner program, along with a masters' level Physician Assistant Program, at our USF campus in Albuquerque , New Mexico . Our MSN programs at both the Joliet and Albuquerque campuses include the clinical nurse specialist, adult and family nurse practitioner tracks. We expanded our other Allied Health Programs to include clinical sites from Rockford to Joliet . Our baccalaureate program in Radiation Therapy is one of two programs of its kind offered in Illinois !
We see our "niche" as educating nurses and allied health professionals to deliver safe, high quality healthcare, with special emphasis on the older adult. Gerontology courses have been added to both our undergraduate and graduate programs. And with our partners at Provena Villa Franciscan, a long-term care facility, we will have senior nursing students demonstrating their competence in leadership at this clinical site. Also, recognizing the national shortage of nurse educators, we have designed a concentration for BSNs and our MSN graduate students to prepare them for the role of nurse educator. The college offers RNs with non-nursing bachelor degrees the opportunity to move seamlessly into our Clinical Nurse Specialist track in Adult Health with a concentration in nursing education without going back to school for a BSN! This program is supported through a federally funded grant from the Division of Nursing in DHHS/HRSA.
Our nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist nursing faculty along with our students practice in our own nurse-managed centers supported by a five year $2.1 million dollar federal grant from the Division of Nursing in DHHS/HRSA. Our Health and Wellness Center provides primary health care services to the uninsured, the underserved and Medicare populations of older adults, disabled adults, woman and children in the Will County area.
As experts in Web-based education, we offer traditional on-campus courses, blended courses (on-campus and online) and totally online courses. Many of our faculty are certified in distance learning (DL) and have presented their innovative online courses at regional and national DL conferences.
We are proud of our healthcare programs and the expertise of our entire faculty. Many of our faculty actively practice their profession as advanced practice nurses, radiation therapists, and physician assistants and bring their rich day-to-day clinical experiences to their students. We are a "teaching intensive" faculty who devote all of our energies to helping students acquire knowledge to enable them to become successful health care professionals.
Maria
Connolly
Dean, College of Nursing and Allied Health