SOUTHFIELD – St. John Providence and Lawrence Technological University have received state approval to establish a nursing education program.

The program, which will open in the Fall 2017 semester in August, will have classroom instruction at Lawrence Tech’s Southfield campus, with clinical and laboratory instruction at six St. John Providence hospital locations around metro Detroit. St. John Providence is part of Ascension, the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world’s largest Catholic health system.

The new program will fall under Lawrence Tech’s College of Arts and Sciences as a major in the LTU Department of Natural Sciences, granting a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

“Michigan and the nation as a whole are in the midst of a continuing shortage of qualified, well-trained nurses,” Lawrence Tech President Virinder Moudgil said. “We aim to help solve that problem with a nursing education program that will take full advantage of our 85-year history as a technologically advanced university. Our founding motto, ‘Theory and Practice,’ is a perfect description of the kind of nursing education we will deliver with our partners at Providence.”

“This partnership is part of our ongoing commitment to providing the training our future nurses need so they can deliver the high quality and compassionate care that patients expect and deserve,” said St. John Providence President & CEO, Jean Meyer.

The Michigan Board of Nursing approved the application for the new nursing program Thursday, Nov. 3.

Lawrence Tech has hired Therese Jamison, DNP, ACNP-BC, as professor of nursing and director of the program. Jamison earned her Doctorate of Nursing Practice from Vanderbilt University. Earlier, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master’s Degree in Nursing from Wayne State University, as well as a post-master’s certificate as an acute care nurse practitioner from the University of Michigan.

A veteran nursing specialist, Jamison continues to work one day a week as a nurse practitioner in cardiovascular services at St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital, Warren Campus.

The six St. John Providence hospital locations are: St. John Hospital & Medical Center, Detroit; St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital, Warren Campus; St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital, Madison Heights Campus; Providence-Providence Park Hospital, Southfield; Providence-Providence Park Hospital, Novi; and St. John River District Hospital, East China Township.

The new nursing program will admit an initial cohort of 32 students for the Fall 2017 academic semester, and 32 new students per year thereafter.

Jamison said the LTU-St. John Providence nursing program will be unique in that it will admit qualified students directly into the nursing program, and nursing classes will start in the curriculum’s first term. Most nursing programs admit students to a “pre-nursing” program for two years of prerequisite courses, then admit a smaller number of those students to the formal nursing program.

Also unique is the close academic-practice partnership between LTU and St. John Providence, Jamison said. Most nursing programs offer their clinical programs through a wide variety of hospital groups, creating barriers for students in navigating the healthcare system.

The LTU-St. John Providence program will conduct its courses year-around over 11 semesters, requiring 126 credit hours of study.

St. John Providence is one the largest providers of inpatient care in southeast Michigan. St. John Providence provides comprehensive prevention, primary care and advanced treatment programs with more than 125 medical centers and six hospital locations spanning five counties.

Lawrence Technological University, http://www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers more than 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 100 universities for the salaries of its graduates, and U.S. News and World Report lists it in the top tier of best Midwestern universities. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.