New A&T, VGCC union puts RNs on fast track
North Carolina A&T State University and Vance-Granville Community College have formed a partnership that will allow graduates of VGCC’s nursing associate degree program to easily transition to N.C. A&T’s four-year nursing degree program.
Representatives of the college and the university formally signed the agreement on February 8 during a ceremony in the Civic Center on VGCC’s main campus in Vance County. The community college also has a South Campus in Granville County (between Creedmoor and Butner), a Franklin County Campus just west of Louisburg and the Warren County Campus in Warrenton.
Through this new “RN to BSN” partnership program, a registered nurse will be able to earn a BS degree in nursing within as little as one year after earning his or her associate degree at VGCC.
The bilateral “articulation agreement,” as such partnerships that allow students to transfer credits are known, joins others already established partnerships between VGCC and four-year colleges and universities. It is unique as the first RN to BSN agreement between A&T and a community college. Also, the program is the first bilateral agreement of any kind between VGCC and A&T, although the community college system and the UNC system enjoy a comprehensive articulation agreement that allows VGCC students to smoothly transfer general education credits to all of the state’s four-year public universities.
“Vance-Granville is honored to be the first community college to sign an RN to BSN agreement with North Carolina A&T,” said Dr. Stelfanie Williams, the president of VGCC. “Our educational collaboration will help us to meet the changing needs of our health-care system.”
Advising of VGCC students interested in this new opportunity will begin this summer. New VGCC graduates could potentially enroll in the RN to BSN program at A&T as early as the Fall 2014 semester.
“We want to ensure that graduates of the VGCC nursing program make a seamless transition into the bachelor of science nursing completion program at A&T,” said A&T Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr.
