Pre-Nursing

Career opportunities in nursing are excellent. Employment of nurses is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2012. New positions in nursing are expected from retirement of existing nurses, technological developments in patient care and an expansion of the need for medical care. As a result of the aging population, employment in home health care and in nursing homes are expected to grow the fastest. In addition, many procedures traditionally performed by physicians are being shifted to nurses with special training. Thus, new job opportunities will add to the growing market for nurses.

Black Hills State University offers pre-nursing courses in cooperation with the University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University. There are two major education paths to a career as a registered nurse: Associate of Science degree in nursing (A.D.N.) from USD (articulation from RN to BSN is also available), and Bachelor of Science degree with a major in nursing (B.S.) from SDSU. Students can complete courses at BHSU prior to enrolling into these degree programs which are located in Rapid City.

In addition, states require prospective nurses pass a national examination to obtain a nursing license. Nursing education involves classroom instruction and clinical practice in hospitals and/or other health care facilities. BHSU offers courses that fulfill the requirements for all the basic science and general education courses. Pre-nursing students are encouraged to join the Health Sciences Student Organization at BHSU, www.BHSU.edu/hsso

The following individuals should be contacted for specific information regarding program and application requirements:

University of South Dakota (A.D.N.)
	Sandy Teigen	steigen@usd.edu	605-394-5396

South Dakota State University (B.S.)
	Kathleen Fitzgerald-Ellis	Kathleen.FitzgeraldEllis@sdstate.edu	605-394-5390

Sources of Additional Information

American Association of Colleges of Nursing http://aacn.nche.edu
National League for Nursing http://www.nln.org/
South Dakota Board of Nursing http://www.state.sd.us/doh/nursing/
South Dakota Nurses Association http://www.nursingworld.org/snas/sd/about.htm

Note - Pre-Professional Preparation Programs

These are recommendations based on requirements for professional schools in South Dakota or in this region. Students are advised to contact any particular schools of interest to identify particular prerequisites for that institution. Much of this information is available from Dr. Charles Lamb (JS-150, 642-6026, CharlesLamb@BHSU.edu).

Program Requirements

Requirements	Course Titles	SDSU	USD
		(B.S.)	(A.D.N.)
BIOL 121	Basic Anatomy	Yes	Yes
BIOL 121L	Basic Anatomy Lab	Yes	Yes
BIOL 123	Basic Physiology	Yes	Yes
BIOL 123L	Basic Physiology Lab	Yes	Yes
BIOL 231	Microbiology	Yes	Yes
BIOL 231L	Microbiology Lab	Yes	No
CHEM 106	Chemistry Survey	Yes	Yes
CHEM 106L	Chemistry Survey Lab	Yes	Yes
CHEM 107	Organic & Biochemistry	Yes	No
CHEM 107L	Organic & Biochemistry Lab	Yes	No
ENGL 101	Composition I	Yes	Yes
ENGL 201	Composition II	Yes	No
HLTH 422	Nutrition	No	No
HLTH 499/452	Human Nutrition	Yes	No
Arts & Humanities		6 Crs.	3 Crs.
Land & Natural Resource	take course from:	3 Crs.	No
	AIS/ENGL 256-Literature of the American West
	BIOL 101/L-Survey of Biology & Lab
	BIOL 311-Principles of Ecology
MATH 102	College Algebra	Yes	Yes
MATH 281	Statistics	Yes	No
PSYC 101	General Psychology	Yes	Yes
PSYC 221	Lifespan Developmental Psychology *
	or
SOC 380	Sociology of Life Styles	Yes	No
SOC 100	Introduction to Sociology
	or
SOC 150	Social Problems	Yes	No
SPCM 101	Fundamentals of Speech *
	or
SPCM 215	Public Speaking
	or
SPCM 222	Argument Debate	Yes	Yes
WEL 100	Wellness for Life	Yes	No
WEL 100 LAB	Wellness for Life Lab	Yes	No

* Preferred course