Congratulations R.N. to B.S. Graduates!

The first cohorts of the College of Nursing and Public Health‘s Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science (R.N. to B.S.) in Nursing program gradated in May 2014 at Adelphi University’s Hudson Valley Center and Sayville Downtown Center.

The R.N. to B.S. program began in Fall 2012 as the first Adelphi program offered at the Sayville Downtown Center. The diverse student body includes recent graduates from community college programs and seasoned professionals from all areas of healthcare, according to Linn Cartagena, associate director of Suffolk County centers and head of the Sayville program.

“This mixture created a great dynamic for the new and the seasoned professionals to see different perspectives in nursing care issues,” she said.

Based on what her students have said, the program proved “outstanding,” said Elizabeth Scannell-Desch, Ph.D., Hudson Valley Center nursing coordinator. She is also optimistic that the first graduating class will achieve great things.

Raymond Santiago, a graduate of the Hudson Valley program, has already secured a job as a nurse in health services at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he has applied for the master’s program in nursing and hopes to begin in Fall 2014. Mr. Santiago said he has learned a lot from the R.N. to B.S. in Nursing program and noted that the small-class environment was a big plus because he got to know all of his peers.

“It is a great program that I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn in a classroom environment,” he said.

Lesley Cunningham, a Sayville graduate, chose that location because it was a one-day program and it required no clinical, which meshed well with her busy schedule. As a school nurse, Ms. Cunningham now looks forward to getting a position in a hospital, which she said is another  major reason she came to the Adelphi program.

Now that these recent Adelphi graduates are well on their way to making their mark in the nursing field, the centers’ first graduating cohorts mean even more to the Adelphi community.

“The first cohort graduation from Hudson Valley demonstrates that the Adelphi nursing program as a whole is reaching out to more New York areas,” Dr. Scannell-Desch said. “It goes to show the reach of Adelphi is great and it is becoming even greater.”