BCC’s Associates degree in nursing will enroll new nursing students for fall 2020.
In order to ensure the health of the Associates Degree in Nursing (ADN) program in the future, Berkshire Community College (BCC) has decided to voluntarily and temporarily suspend admission to the first year of our ADN program for fall 2019. As such, the college’s next first-year class of ADN students will be admitted for fall 2020.
We have a 50 year history of graduating excellent practitioners and this brief pause allows us to address specific areas of focus that have been highlighted by our accrediting and licensing bodies”
BCC will offer two opportunities for students to be admitted into this 2020 class.
- Early Admissions: Any student who is interested in enrolling in our program is urged to apply for early admissions; the deadline will be June 1, 2019.
- Regular Admissions: There will also be an admission opportunity next spring for this same class.
To register for an early admissions information session, please head to www.berkshirecc.edu/nursinginfo.
Head to our Associates degree in Nursing page for more information about or admissions process.
BCC will accept 56 students into the 2020 ADN program. All students who are accepted as early admits will be allowed to take one health-related course at no cost as they continue to prepare for their successful entry into our nursing program. Free course offerings include Abnormal Psychology, Pathophysiology, Medical Terminology, and Nutrition.
BCC will hold two informational sessions to continue to address your concerns and help support students with their academic journey. Online registration for these sessions are available at www.berkshirecc.edu/nursinginfo.
While this action will not impact students currently enrolled in BCC’s ADN program, it will have an impact on those who had planned to apply to be a part of next year’s class or who deferred admission last year.
BCC’s responsibility is to admit, support, and educate future nurses. In taking that responsibility seriously, the College recognizes the need to improve their retention and graduation rates. To do so effectively, the college’s team of faculty and staff will use the 2019-2020 academic year to continue making systematic improvements to its internal curricular processes and make the adjustments recommended by the accrediting and licensing bodies; Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing (MABORN) and Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN).
The college has been a critical partner with us in addressing the pipeline for the healthcare profession in our region, BCC has kept us involved during this process and we understand the reason for and support this decision,"
These changes will enhance the opportunities for BCC’s fall 2019 second-year ADN students, bridging students, and the 2019 incoming Practical Nursing (PN) class.
BCC will admit bridge and readmit students in the fall of 2019 and 2020 to comprise second year ADN classes. Doing so will allow graduating classes of ADN students in both 2020 and 2021, though the 2021 class may be somewhat smaller than has been usual.
A strength of our program has been our faculty, BCC’s nursing faculty are committed to providing excellent nurses for our community. It is out of respect for this tradition that the faculty agreed that taking a year to respond to the increasingly evidenced-based and scientifically rigorous standards from our regulators was the wisest approach to ensure the quality of our future nursing graduates,”