Nursing Program in the Works at Pitt-Greensburg

With the expected implementation of a Biochemistry major for the Fall of the next academic year, life science study will be available at Pitt-Greensburg.

“Students’ interests are moving more and more towards the life sciences,” said Sharon Smith, President of the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg.

Life science includes the fields of biology, chemistry, and bio-chemistry, as well as many more. The newest life science program students are showing an interest in is a nursing program, said President Smith.

“The nursing profession is in great need,” President Smith said. “A full nursing program doesn’t ex-ist as such in this area.”

There is a two year program at Westmoreland Community College, but no four year program.

President Smith said the uni-versity had been thinking about implementing a nursing program at Pitt-Greensburg for a long time; they just needed the students to show interest as well, and the number of students showing a want for this program has grown in the past few years.

If approved, the Nursing pro-gram at Greensburg would be a satellite from the program at the School of Nursing in Oakland. All the material would be approved by people at the main campus, and the professors who would be involved in the Greensburg program would be qualified instructors that could teach at the School of Nursing, en-suring the best possible nursing ed-ucation for the students involved.

Although President Smith fully backs the nursing program, there are several other approvals the program has to go through before it can be advertised, including approval from the State of Pennsylvania, as well as approval from Pitt’s Office of the Provost, the office in charge of all of academia at Pitt.

President Smith isn’t the only one excited for the opportunity of having a Nursing program on campus.

“The population of nurses is low, and I feel as if the program is a good opportunity for me as far as helping people.” Amani Bey, a freshman interested in the Nursing program, said.

Although the program is still waiting for approval from the State as well as the Provost, President Smith doesn’t think there will be any problems with getting it approved, since the program is directly through the School of Nursing, as well as the fact that there’s a lack of nursing programs in the Westmoreland area.