This story was originally published by the Herald of White River Valley on September 11, 2025.
A big attraction for VTSU’s nursing education, according to Dr. Caitlin Stover, the dean of nursing and health sciences, is the number of different programs the schools offers, and the ability to roll one certification into the next. Students can get a licensed practical nurse (LPN) certification in their first year, then continue their second year and complete a registered nurse (RN) certification. From there, students can finish out their bachelor’s degree in nursing online through VTSU.
“We are [an] enormous program all over the state,” Dr. Stover said. “We have a very large footprint, so we do capture students from all regions of Vermont. We are able to educate and then employ…contributing to the workforce to meet the needs of the state.”
RegisteredNursing.org highlighted the flexibility of VTSU’s degree programs as well as their 93% pass rate.
“The RN to BS completion is fully online. Clearly these are working nurses, and as we know, nurses work 24 hour[s] a day, seven days a week, holidays, weekends, nights, the whole thing,” Dr. Stover said. “So I think anything that we can do to make their education more adaptable to their work schedules, I think is certainly going to be an attraction.”