RN to BSN Completion Program - University of Maine at Augusta

Learn about caring through an integral-holistic curriculum.

In recent years, holistic nursing has begun to find its rightful way back into contemporary nursing, effectively tying together medical breakthroughs with a nurturing and healing approach. This is the very premise of UMA’s BS program. It takes the best of modern medicine, health, and caring, and ties it together with all the profession has learned over the past 100 years.

With UMA’s integral-holistic curriculum based in Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring, Barbara Dossey’s theory of Integral Nursing, and Ken Wilber’s Integral Philosophy, our RN Completion program is not just about the patient.

As a student here, you will learn

how to take better care of yourself in a profession that we know firsthand can be incredibly stressful.
to create meaningful and sustainable caring-healing nursing practices that support why you became a nurse in the first place.
knowledge and skills beyond the ASN foundation to enhance your practice.

Accessible for students at a distance

Because most of our BSN students are working nurses, UMA’s program is offered 100% online to support their life and work schedules.

UMA takes great pride in providing support for students throughout their educational journey. To provide this support, all full-time faculty have scheduled office hours that can be used by students in both live and virtual formats.

Students are also welcome to seek support for advising and financial aid through the UMA campus, virtual meetings and at all of the UMA centers across the state.

Accessibility Support

At UMA, there are many resources and accommodations available to support student learning. Student Support is the department that is responsible for providing necessary accommodations to students with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Explore these tabs to learn more about UMA’s RN to BSN program.

RN to BSN Program Admission

With UMA’s public tuition rate, you will pay less than at any other RN to BS in Nursing program in the state. Plus, UMA will award you up to three credits for selected nursing certificates you may have already earned – that’s an additional savings of over $600. At the same time, UMA’s program offers a high quality education that meets all the standards mandated by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN).

Admission Requirements

In order to be admitted into the RN-BS in Nursing Completion program option the prospective student must have the following.

Associate Degree in Nursing (from a nationally and regionally accredited institution)
Active RN license (must be completed before the second semester in the program)
Minimum cumulative GPA of 2.50 from all regionally accredited institutions attended (if minimum GPA requirement is not met, you may elect to be admitted into the BS in Liberal Studies program and take non-nursing general education courses until the GPA reaches 2.5)

Note: If transfer students have not completed the courses listed below at their former college, they need to complete UMA’s core education requirements before receiving a degree from UMA.

BIO 110 Fundamentals of Biology or equivalent
BIO 210 Anatomy & Physiology or equivalent
BIO 321 Microbiology or equivalent
COM any 100-level Communications course
ENG 101 College Writing
Fine Arts or Humanities elective
MAT any 100-level or higher Mathematics course
PSY 100 Introduction to Psychology
PSY 308 Human Development
SOC 101 Introduction to Sociology

Admission Process

A candidate for admission must complete the UMA application and pay associated fees. For complete UMA admission policies please refer to the current on-line catalog. For specific questions regarding the nursing program please contact either the Administrative Specialist or the Academic Program Coordinator. Once applicant’s file is complete and all requirements are met, the applicant will be notified by letter whether the application has been accepted or denied. After receiving a letter of acceptance, which lists a nursing faculty advisor, students are encouraged to contact their advisor as soon as convenient to set up an appointment to discuss program progression and graduation date goal.

Prior Learning Assessment

Course credits can be earned in the following ways: Credit by Examination, Portfolio Review, and External Training Review – Students can be awarded 3 NUR elective credits for current national certification in the following areas: See RN Nursing Certifications for a complete list. See Prior Learning Assessment for more information about all the avenues by which UMA accepts credit for prior learning.

Questions? Contact UMA Admissions at umaadm@maine.edu or 1-877-862-1234

UMA degrees are flexible. Here is an example of how you could complete your RN to BSN degree.

Courses are subject to change. View the official UMA Catalog here.

UMA Bachelor of Science Nursing Completion Program

Sample Curriculum 2 Years Full-Time

Course	Title	Credits
Third Year – Fall Semester
NUR 304	Concepts of Professional Nursing Practice (This course is required to be the first NUR course to be taken in the RN to BSN program and must be taken at UMA unless awarded course transfer equivalency upon admission.)	3
NUR 301	Health Assessment Through the Lifespan	4
ENG 210W	Writing for Allied Health	3
MAT 115	Elementary Statistics I	3
	Total Credit Hours	13
Third Year – Spring Semester
NUR 326	Caring for Aging Adults	3
NUR 352	Nursing Research	3
BIO 104	Human Nutrition	3
BIO 345	Pathophysiology	3
Elective	Fine Arts or Humanities elective	3
	Total Credit Hours	15
Fourth Year – Fall Semester
NUR/CIS 225	Introduction to Health Informatics	3
NUR 355	Community and Global Health Didactic	3
NUR 410	Leadership and Management in Nursing	3
NUR elective	Complete 300 or 400 level	3
	Total Credit Hours	12
Fourth Year – Spring Semester
NUR 356	Community and Global Health Clinical	2
NUR 499W	Senior Seminar	3
NUR elective	Complete 300 or 400 level	3
Elective	Fine Arts or Humanities elective	3
	Total Credit Hours	11
	TOTAL CREDITS	51

Sample Curriculum 4 Years Part-Time

Course	Title	Credits
Third Year – Fall Semester
NUR 304	Concepts of Professional Nursing Practice (This course is required to be the first NUR course to be taken in the RN to BSN program and must be taken at UMA unless awarded course transfer equivalency upon admission.)	3
ENG 210W	Writing for Allied Health	3

	Total Credit Hours	6
Third Year – Spring Semester
NUR 301	Health Assessment Through the Lifespan	4
MAT 115	Elementary Statistics I	3
	Total Credit Hours	7
Fourth Year – Fall Semester
NUR 326	Caring for Aging Adults	3
BIO 104	Human Nutrition	3
	Total Credit Hours	6
Fourth Year – Spring Semester
NUR 352	Nursing Research	3
BIO 345	Pathophysiology	3
	Total Credit Hours	6
Fifth Year – Fall Semester
NUR 355	Community and Global Health Didactic	3
NUR elective	Complete 300 or 400 level	3
	Total Credit Hours	6
Fifth Year – Spring Semester
NUR 356	Community and Global Health Clinical	2
NUR elective	Complete 300 or 400 level	3
	Total Credit Hours	5
Sixth Year – Fall Semester
NUR 410	Leadership and Management in Nursing	3
Elective	Fine Arts or Humanities elective	3
	Total Credit Hours	6
Sixth Year – Spring Semester
NUR/CIS 225	Introduction to Health Informatics	3
NUR 499W	Senior Seminar	3
Elective	Fine Arts or Humanities elective	3
	Total Credit Hours	8
	TOTAL CREDITS	51

RN to BSN Program Student Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the RN- BSN program, the graduate will be able to:

Demonstrate holistic-relationship centered nursing care in diverse health care settings.
Use best current evidence to provide safe and effective holistic nursing care.
Use critical thinking skills to assess cultural, ethical, legal, and safety concerns with diverse client populations across the lifespan.
Utilize technology and information to monitor outcomes of holistic care and to improve the quality and safety of healthcare systems.
Develop one’s professional identity with an ability to partner within an interdisciplinary team in order to continuously improve care.
Effectively communicate through technological, written, and verbal modalities.
Demonstrate transformative leadership skills in influencing healthcare care delivery systems.
Demonstrate competency with self care-healing modalities in order to create sustainable caring-healing practices.
Create a plan for continued professional development and commitment to lifelong learning.
Develop health promotion and illness prevention skills for patients and communities via contemporary approaches to wellness through the coaching role of the nurse.

RN to BSN Program Data

The University of Maine at Augusta’s Bachelor of Science-Nursing Completion Program is externally accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN). The commission requires that specific student achievement outcome data be made publicly accessible. The required data for UMA’s RN to BSN degree program is provided below.

Program Outcome 1: Program completion rate will be at or above 50% (% of students completing program within 150% of program length).

Year	% of Students
2022/2023	57%
2021/2022	40%
2020/2021	50%
2019/2020	33%

While the 2017/2018 completion rate approached the goal of 50% of students completing the RN-BSN program with 3-5 years from matriculation, the overall rate of completion within this time period is 41%. The RN-BSN program remains at or well above UMA’s overall retention rate for transfer students, which averages 26% retention for the same time period.

The faculty within the RN-BSN program have worked closely with UMA staff to devise an action plan to address retention issues, including streamlining our transfer student support and processes, using a more robust on-boarding process for newly matriculated students, enhancing our advising process with current students, stronger use of the degree progression form when advising students, enacting better student outreach processes, and using our available technological resources to identify students who may be at risk for not completing within 3-5 years.

Program Outcome 2: 80% of students will be employed in role-related professional practice.

Year	% of Students
2024	100%
2023	100%
2022	100%
2021	100%

At the end of each academic term (Fall, Spring, and Summer), graduates from that term are surveyed regarding their ability to meet the program outcomes, program satisfaction and employment status. With the Spring 2018 graduates, a question was added regarding the new graduates have changed jobs related to recently having completed the RN-BSN program.

Our students not only report high satisfaction with the academic program, they confirm that they have consistent employment while both in the RN-BSN program and upon graduation. With the most recent Spring 2018 survey, 40% of students answering the survey replied that they had changed jobs upon or just prior to graduation.

Action Plan

The nursing faculty are consistently partnering with the Office of Institutional Planning and Research to determine ways to most accurately obtain data related to student and graduate employment.