Randolph-Macon College President Robert R. Lindgren is pleased to announce that the college has established a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. The program has received initial approval from the Virginia Board of Nursing and will begin in fall 2019.

A Powerful Academic Offering
“RMC’s BSN program is a powerful academic offering for our students,” says Lindgren. “There is enormous enthusiasm at the college for this new program, and I have no doubt that nurses who are educated at Randolph-Macon College will be exceptionally well-equipped to enter the healthcare arena and become leaders in their profession.”

Dr. Cindy Rubenstein has been named chair of the program.

“Dr. Rubenstein has extensive experience as a nurse clinician, educator and administrator,” says Lindgren. “We look forward to having her share her expertise and guidance with our nursing students.”

Living and Learning at RMC
The BSN program, an outstanding complement to the college’s 54-plus current academic offerings, will integrate RMC’s liberal arts tradition as it prepares students to work as collaborative members of interdisciplinary healthcare teams. Nursing students will develop essential skills as they gain a deep knowledge of the sciences. Admitted to the program as freshmen, nursing students will have the opportunity to engage in discipline-specific learning beginning in their first year at RMC.

At Randolph-Macon, students are provided with opportunities both inside and outside of the classroom to learn while developing and refining critical thinking skills, problem solving abilities, and excellent communication skills. These are the hallmarks of a Randolph-Macon education, and will be a key component of the BSN program.

“The curriculum will prepare graduates as leaders of their profession, inter-professional collaborators, and advocates prepared to improve health care outcomes for individuals of diverse backgrounds and needs,” says Rubenstein. “The BSN program will provide the Commonwealth of Virginia with graduates prepared to meet the healthcare needs of Virginians in the coming years.”

State-of-the-Art Facility
The nursing program, and the new, state-of-the-art nursing building that will be constructed by late fall 2019, are covered fully by private donations.

Students will experience some of the most advanced simulation technology in the Clinical Learning Center, with discipline-specific as well as interdisciplinary learning opportunities. With robust health assessment and skills labs in addition to simulation learning laboratories, students will experience an optimal learning environment designed to improve technical nursing skills, clinical judgment, decision making, communication and teamwork.

The RMC Experience
RMC Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Dr. Susan Parker, a leader in the BSN initiative, says, “What makes our BSN program distinctive is the combination of an outstanding nursing program with a robust liberal arts curriculum and a residential experience. Our nursing students—like all our students—will enjoy the full college experience, including opportunities to participate in athletics, campus activities, Greek life, internships, ground-breaking research, our study-abroad program, and more. Nursing students will be a vital part of our residential campus community.”

Small Cohorts + Faculty Mentorship
The Randolph-Macon BSN curriculum is based on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice. Students in the program will receive close, personal attention from experienced faculty with clinical expertise in a variety of nursing specialties. BSN students will have opportunities to conduct collaborative research with nursing faculty, pursue externships, and participate in clinical practice as they gain a depth of understanding to prepare them for nursing practice.

Graduates of the program are educationally prepared for generalist nursing practice. A RMC-educated, professional nurse will also be prepared for entry into graduate nursing programs.

Partnerships
RMC will build on its existing partnerships with two major healthcare providers, Bon Secours Health System, Inc. and HCA (Hospital Corporation of America)—relationships that will provide a wealth of clinical learning opportunities for nursing students.

BSN students will explore and experience the diverse roles of nurses throughout various healthcare delivery systems and settings and gain invaluable hands-on experience and future career opportunities.

Dr. Cindy Rubenstein
Rubenstein earned her B.S.N. from University of Virginia, her M.S.N. from Virginia Commonwealth University and her Ph.D. from Villanova University.

Highlights of her curricular innovations include phased-in integration of iPad technology into the BSN program and academic/practice partnership initiatives; fostering collaborations with clinical agency partners; and creating nursing student fellowship and scholar programs to facilitate practice transition and retention of new BSN graduates.

Rubenstein, who serves as accreditation site visitor for the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, was a 2012 American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Leadership in Academic Nursing Program fellow and the 2013 recipient of the AACN Excellence in Teaching Innovation Award.

A certified pediatric nurse practitioner with extensive experience in pediatric primary care, she has led and served on mission and study abroad courses focusing on pediatric health and wellness in Haiti and Kenya. She currently volunteers as a provider for Remote Area Medical to deliver medical services to underserved and uninsured individuals in Virginia and throughout the United States.

Rubenstein’s established research and scholarship trajectory includes clinical pediatrics and nursing education. Outcomes of her studies and grants have been published in peer-reviewed professional journals and presented at national conferences. She is the author of a peer-reviewed book chapter in Public Health Nursing and serves as a manuscript reviewer for the Journal of Specialists in Pediatric Nursing.

In addition to internal and private grant funding awards, Rubenstein served as a sub-investigator on a $3.4 million USDA/USDHHS grant at James Madison University to develop an online nutrition educational program for WIC (Women, Infants & Children) families in Virginia. She recently served as co-investigator on a second HRSA Nursing Workforce Diversity Program grant, Dedicated to Diversity: Risk to Resiliency. The project’s retention interventions addressed academic, social, physical and mental health, financial, and professional needs of diverse and disadvantaged undergraduate nursing students.

 

Founded in 1830, and ideally located in historic Ashland, Virginia, just minutes north of Richmond and 90 miles south of Washington D.C., Randolph-Macon College is a selective, co-educational, nationally-recognized liberal arts college with a mission of “developing the minds and character of its students.” The college achieves this mission through a combination of personal interaction and academic rigor. Enrollment is over 1,400 with a student-faculty ratio of 11:1 and an average class size of 15 students. Randolph-Macon College is known for its exceptional faculty, national and international internships, study abroad and undergraduate research opportunities and unique First-Year Experience and January Term programs. The college pledges a Four-Year Degree Guarantee for eligible students and also offers the EDGE, a dynamic four-year program aimed at helping graduates lead the pack when competing for jobs and applying to graduate schools. Randolph-Macon, the oldest United Methodist Church-affiliated college in the nation, is an NCAA Division III school and member of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) that offers 18 varsity sports.