2025-2026 Academic Catalog
DEPARTMENT OF NURSING
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 Return to: SCHOOL OF HEALTH, PROFESSIONS, SCIENCE AND WELLNESS | SHPSW
Information
Tijuana Griffin, Ph.D., M.S.N., M.S., R.N., C.N.O.R. | Director of Nursing
Edyth T. James Department of Nursing
Room 205, Health Science Building
Washington Adventist University
7600 Flower Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20912-7796
301-891-4144 | Fax: 301-891-4191
waunursing@wau.edu
Faculty
Tijuana Griffin, Ph.D., M.S.N., M.S., CNOR, R.N. | Director of Nursing
Jercilla Murmu, D.N.P., M.S., C.N.E., R.N. | Associate Director of Nursing
Dhaya P. Nandipamu, D.N.P., M.S.N., APRN, FNP-C , C.C.R.N., C.N.E.
Oluwakemi Opanubi, Ph.D., M.B.A., M.S., R.N
Helen Wilson, D.N.P., M.S.N., APRN, FNP-C, C.R.R.N., C.N.E.
Staff
Sonica Nakka | Nursing Office Manager
MISSION STATEMENT
The primary mission of the Department of Nursing is the immersion of students into a Christocentric nursing environment, which fosters the harmonious development of human beings, while instilling the essence of Christian caring in the nursing role with a focus on service through practice, research and global leadership.
INTRODUCTION
Washington Adventist University’s nursing program has a rich 116-year history that includes being the first baccalaureate nursing program established in the state of Maryland.
In the early years the nursing school was named the Washington Sanitarium Training School for Missionary Nurses. The nursing program was first offered in 1909 as a three-year hospital-based program. The baccalaureate program was established in 1926.
Opportunities for nursing students to serve abroad are still provided and the University offers short-term mission trips to foreign countries each year. The University faculty and staff work towards the goal of helping students complete their nursing degrees within a supportive, spiritual, Christian learning community. The nursing program has a new, comprehensive curriculum and many success strategies in place that will help students to progress successfully through the program, pass their R.N. state board exams, and reach their dreams of becoming registered nurses.
Washington Adventist University’s nursing programs are approved by the Maryland Board of Nursing and the Maryland Higher Education Commission.
The baccalaureate degree in nursing and master’s degree in nursing programs at Washington Adventist University are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). Washington Adventist University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. The university is also accredited by The Accrediting Association of Seventh-day Adventist Schools, Colleges and Universities.
Multiple agencies utilized for clinical experiences include, but are not limited to:
- White Oak Medical Center
- Shady Grove Medical Center
- Fort Washington Medical Center
- Howard University Hospital
- University of Maryland Prince George’s Hospital Center
- Adventist Health Care Behavioral Health and Wellness Center
- Children’s National Medical Center
- MedStar Washington Hospital Center
- Luminis Health Doctors Community Medical Center
- Adventist Home Health
- Veterans Administration of Maryland and Washington, D.C.
The nursing program is located in the Department of Nursing. The program is advised and managed by the Department of Nursing. The information for freshman entry and entry for transfer students can be found in this section. The R.N.-M.S. in Nursing program and entry information can be found in the SCHOOL OF GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES section.
GOAL OF B.S. IN NURSING PROGRAM
The goal of the B.S. in Nursing program is to prepare generalist nurses who practice within a holistic, caring framework to help individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations meet their optimum health potential through human need fulfillment.
EXPECTED STUDENT OUTCOMES
Graduates of the B.S. in Nursing program are prepared to:
- Integrate theoretical knowledge acquired through the study of the humanities, liberal arts, social sciences, and natural sciences as a foundation to enhance the nursing knowledge and values necessary to deliver professional nursing care to clients across the life span within a multicultural society.
- Demonstrate the ability to provide quality health care within a framework of leadership, quality improvement, and patient safety.
- Apply best research evidence, systematic and logical reflective reasoning, and consideration of patient values in the promotion of evidence-based nursing practice.
- Demonstrate safe, quality outcomes of care through the competent use of patient care technologies and information management systems.
- Appraise the healthcare, financial, and regulatory policies that influence the practice of professional nursing.
- Design interventions that improve health promotion, injury prevention, disease risk reduction, in human beings and through the population levels.
- Integrate professional communication techniques, collaborative skills, and teamwork as part of daily delivery of high quality and safe patient care.
- Demonstrate professional standards of nursing, including a commitment to caring, altruism, autonomy, human dignity, integrity, social justice, accountability, learning, and advancement of the profession.
- Deliver quality care to human beings, families, communities and populations across the life span and across the continuum of healthcare environments with a respect for the increased complexity and increased use of healthcare resources integral in caring for patients.
- Incorporate spiritual assessment into the planning and delivery of culturally competent care.
CAREER OPPORTUNTIES
If you are planning to apply to the Washington Adventist University nursing program, you have selected one of the best professions for future employment growth and career satisfaction.
The Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Nursing expands the nurse’s view of society’s health needs. Employment opportunities extend beyond hospitals and nursing homes to community health agencies, health maintenance organizations, private industry, educational institutions, missions, and foreign services.
The program’s broad integrated perspective develops interpersonal theoretical and clinical competence and prepares the student for graduate study in nursing. Nurses with graduate degrees in nursing find increased employment opportunities in research, practice, administration, and education.
ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Freshmen students wishing to be nursing majors must first be admitted to the university according to general university policy. Then they must apply for admission into the nursing program the semester before the second semester of the sophomore year. Students who have yet to be accepted into the nursing program (including transfer students) receive academic guidance from the Department of Nursing admissions and progression coordinator. Once in the nursing program, students are advised by an assigned faculty adviser in the Department of Nursing.
Admission to the nursing program in the sophomore year requires:
- Acceptance to Washington Adventist University
- Completion of prerequisite courses with a “C” or better
- Submission of cumulative college GPA of 3.0 or higher is required
- Science GPA of 2.75
- Proficient or higher-level scores on the TEAS VII.
- TEAS VII - Reading score of 70 percent and science score of 66 percent
Students who apply for admission to the nursing program will be evaluated in six different areas.
Registration requirements for the nursing program include:
- Criminal background check with no negative history found
- Drug screen - negative
- Immunizations
- CPR card (American Heart Association for health care providers only)
- First Aid card (American Heart Association)
- Health insurance
- Tuberculosis screening
NURSING PREREQUISITE COURSES
Students applying for admission to the nursing program must successfully complete the following courses with a minimum grade of “C” for each course. Only two of these courses may be repeated once, and no one course can be repeated more than once to be eligible for admission.
Note for transfer students: The department will review ALL prerequisite courses taken at other institutions prior to considering a student for admission to the WAU Nursing Program. The student’s eligibility for admission will be based on all credits attempted, regardless of the transfer status of the course(s). The department may require certain courses to be taken within a certain number of years before acceptance into the program is approved.
Therefore, an individual may be requested by the Nursing department to repeat a course they have already taken, even though the University accepted the credit by transferring the course. The request to repeat specific courses is at the discretion of the Nursing department.
The Department of Nursing requires all NURS courses to be completed at WAU as listed for graduation. NURS or related nursing courses from other schools will not be accepted as equivalents or replacements for WAU core nursing courses.
Washington Adventist University offers both an R.N.-B.S. in Nursing and an R.N.-M.S. in Nursing completion program for associate degree nursing graduates.
Admission information for the R.N.-B.S. in Nursing and R.N.-M.S. in Nursing programs may be found in the SCHOOL OF GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES section .
Copies of the health immunizations, background checks, CPR card, and other tests must be submitted via CastleBranch before clinical courses can be taken. Note: Health requirements are subject to change at any time in compliance with health care facilities requirements.
Students are expected to provide their own transportation to and from the agencies used for nursing clinical experiences. Each student must have access to a car during the community health clinical experience in the junior year. Students will be expected to be available to attend clinical experiences and nursing classes and labs during the daytime, evenings, and possibly Sundays.
ProgramsBaccalaureate Degree
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