St. Joseph’s launches new nursing program as part of looming merger with Lancaster-based college

St. Joseph’s University is continuing its expansion into training future health-care workers by launching a nursing program.

The new undergraduate offering is part of the looming merger between the Catholic university on City Avenue and the Lancaster-based Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences, which is expected to become part of St. Joseph’s next January.

St. Joseph’s is building off the Lancaster school’s nursing programs by offering a new bachelor in science of nursing, or BSN, on its main campus. It expects to enroll 75 students in the program launching in Philadelphia next fall.

“A year from today, we will have a new cohort of nursing students beginning their four-year BSN here,” said St. Joseph’s president Cheryl McConnell.

As part of the merger, St. Joseph’s entered an affiliation agreement with Penn Medicine that will ensure training spots for the new nursing students.

In January, St. Joseph’s announced that it had reached a “definitive agreement” to merge with the College of Health Sciences, which was founded by the University of Pennsylvania-owned Lancaster General Hospital.

» READ MORE: St. Joe’s announces merger with another college, this one with nursing programs

The Lancaster campus will continue offering bachelor’s and associate’s nursing degrees under the St. Joseph’s banner. McConnell hopes the new program at the Philly-area campus will follow similarly high standards.

“They are extraordinary at the Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences, and we plan on keeping that same commitment to the same curriculum and quality here,” she said.

Last year, nearly 94% of the BSN graduates of the College of Health Science who took the licensure required to work as a registered nurse, or NCLEX, passed. The statewide average was 84%.

The merger is pending regulatory approval, the university said. Still, St. Joe’s is already advertising the new nursing offering, and admissions are open.

About a year before St. Joseph’s announced the merger with the College of Health Sciences, the university finalized another merger with the Philadelphia-based University of the Sciences. That merger brought the nation’s first pharmacy college under the umbrella of St. St. Joseph’s.

McConnell said that the decision to focus on health and expand into programs such as nursing reflects demand from students, as well as the workforce needs of the health-care sector.

The past summer has seen change for nursing programs in the region.

There were 44 programs for bachelor’s in nursing in the state as of April, according to the Pennsylvania Board of Nursing, with more than a dozen in the Philadelphia area.

» READ MORE: Lincoln University closes its nursing program, leaving a hole in the pipeline of Black nurses

Two local programs shut down in recent months:

In Chester County, Lincoln University’s program, the only nursing degree offered in the state by a historically Black college and university, closed down in May after years of low licensure test scores.

In June, Cabrini University in Delaware County announced that it would be shutting down and selling its campus to Villanova University. It will no longer be offering nursing courses in the upcoming school year, the university’s last. In the joint statement announcing the purchase, Villanova agreed to continue Cabrini’s nursing legacy.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that Cabrini University is in Delaware County.