Progression of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program at Stonehill

By Lily Cogliano

Stonehill has finally found itself present within its long awaited Nursing program, which has been greatly anticipated by the Stonehill community.

This program is a five year strategic plan that has been installed and is beginning to welcome its first group of nursing students this 2026-2027 school year.

This has been an anticipated change within the college campus, as we’re welcoming new students, professors, and will be completely altering the “L” wing in the Duffy academic building.

Stonehill will be renovating Duffy to accommodate the program, building labs based on the amount of students. The “L” will be where students can go whenever they want to practice in the simulation lab.

There will be mannequin patients and a studio apartment - since the students will need to learn to navigate going into people's homes that they may encounter post-college, and they’re even recruiting theatre students to play old.

This’ll be extremely helpful to the nursing students so they can benefit from more practice communicating with patients and handling realistic situations (as well as a good exercise for the theatre students).

The construction will start when classes end in December and will finish before students come back to the school year next year, July 2027.

Having a separate admission pool, Stonehill anticipated there to be forty nursing students coming into this year. Vice President of Academic Affairs Peter Ubertaccio said the College actually enrolled sixty students.

He said the College was unsure of what number would be an accurate baseline to admit, and they overshot to see how many people they would accept. Now, Stonehill is making sixty the new beginning admission number, rather than forty.

Their major requirements in their first years will be similar to others, starting with the

basic science, math, etc; and by this time next year they’ll have nursing classes. Since this

program leads to a license requirement, they’ll find that classes are significantly stricter, meaning they won’t be able to miss their clinicals.

The clinicals will prepare them for the nursing basics. By graduation, they’ll be leaving Stonehill with their license as well as their degree.

When welcoming this incoming class of nursing majors, Stonehill combined the students with the rest of the College majors, keeping them integrated within the same orientations and seminars. The only difference is that the nursing majors will have their own separate first year

experience class for the sole purpose of gaining the opportunity to get to know their faculty

specifically.

Sue Taylor, the Dean of nursing, oversaw the planning and operating of all the

schools programming and activities. She hired one professor of practice who will also be the

clinical coordinator - and another full time instructor who will teach the science classes.

Ubertaccio said the College is still looking for three more instructors, one being a lab technician; their goal is to hire six- seven more people for this program, and even more the following year.

This program continues to show Stonehill College’s growth and investment towards its students. The nursing program is finally becoming a reality at Stonehill, marking a new chapter in colleges' progressing future.