Magazine Spring 2024 Westmont Downtown Grotenhuis Nursing
Two Degrees in Four Years
A new fast-track nursing program allows Westmont students to earn two bachelor’s degrees in four-and-a-half years. First-year and transfer students may now choose this more economical option when pursuing a nursing career through Westmont Downtown | Grotenhuis Nursing, which operates in partnership with Cottage Health and Sansum Clinics in Santa Barbara.
Students will complete three and a half years toward their first degree on the Montecito campus and then enter the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program prior to earning a bachelor’s degree.
Accepted students will begin the ABSN program in the final semester of their senior year and attend classes at the downtown campus. They’ll receive their first bachelor’s degree at the end of their first semester and complete their ABSN after one more year.
Applicants may qualify for generous financial aid packages available for both degrees at Westmont. Students interested in the fast-track program can learn more from their academic adviser and the ABSN admissions counselor and apply using the NursingCAS application.
Earning Final Accreditation
The Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) voted to approve accreditation for Westmont’s Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program in November. Westmont had to clearly demonstrate that its nursing program, which launched in January 2022, met all four of the CCNE standards: mission and governance, institutional commitment and resources, curriculum and teaching-learning practices, and assessment and achievement of program outcomes. The retroactive accreditation applies to Westmont’s first cohort of eight nursing students, who graduated in May 2023 and earned their degree from a CCNE-accredited program.
Kim Battle-Walters Denu, Westmont’s provost, congratulates and thanks Dianthe Hoffman, the program’s current director, and Carol Velas, the program’s founding director, as well as the entire nursing faculty and staff team. “We’re thankful for their leadership,” she says. “We’re also grateful for our nursing students and graduates who represent Westmont through the excellent care and compassion they provide patients in clinical settings within our community and beyond. We look forward to many more Westmont-educated nurses joining their ranks in the years to come.”
Two months after graduating, all eight of the initial cohort passed the National Council for Licensure Exam-RN and have begun careers as nurses. Half of them serve in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties (see page 39).
Graduates Get Pinned
Westmont celebrated the accomplishments of 18 new graduates of the Westmont Downtown | Grotenhuis Nursing program at a pinning ceremony December 14 at Montecito Covenant Church, the second cohort to complete the 16-month ABSN program.
President Gayle D. Beebe, Hoffman, nursing faculty member Laura Danhauer and Denu spoke at the event. Brandi Blackwell, Emily Castellanos, Sabrina Cerda, Mary Gray, Jacqueline Hernandez, Chloe Howard, Nadia Lezada, Monika Lopez, Teagan Matye, Jacob Ochoa, Yujin Oh, Costanza Pauletto, Lily Perez, Ashley Reyes, Reyna Estrada Rioux,
Elanna Tahan, Maria Vences and Sofia Van Wingerden all received pins as they walked across the stage at the ceremony.