Bachelor of Science in Nursing

Earn your nursing degree with Maine’s leading health professions University. Launch a meaningful, successful career of helping others with an in-demand healthcare skillset.

Embark on a Nursing Career with UNE’s B.S.N. Program

Become part of the largest and most trusted segment of the health care workforce. At UNE, our nursing instruction utilizes a variety of innovative teaching strategies, including skill-building in a state-of-the-art Simulation and Innovation Center. As a comprehensive health sciences university, we emphasize interprofessional education, so you learn to work as part of a health care team. And with the highest three-year (2021-2023) average for NCLEX-RN first-time pass rates in the state of Maine, we are confident that you will emerge from our program with the training and experience you need to start making a difference in patients’ lives.

Title
Best Undergraduate Nursing Programs
Source
US News & World Report
Year
2025

Why UNE for your bachelor of science in Nursing

  • Our NCLEX-RN licensing exam pass rate has been above the national average since 2013
  • UNE is the #1 Maine University for students getting jobs after graduation — Zippia
  • Study for two years on our gorgeous coastal Biddeford Campus, and two years on our in-town Portland Campus for the Health Sciences
  • Learn clinical skills in a state-of-the-art, hospital-like simulation lab
  • Study abroad at UNE’s Morocco campus, specially designed for health professions students
  • Engage in fascinating service learning opportunities in the U.S. and abroad
  • Learn with students of other health disciplines, including future doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and others
  • Financial Aid, including merit awards 
  • Already have a bachelor’s? Accelerated 12-month B.S.N. program available 

What will you study? B.S. in Nursing Curriculum Overview

As a Nursing student, you will explore the domains of geriatrics, pediatrics, obstetrics, mental health, and more. The following are just some examples of the exciting courses that you will take:

  • Adult Health
  • Maternal/Child Nursing
  • Evidenced-Based Practice
  • Health Assessment
  • Pharmacology
  • Medical Surgical Nursing
  • Mental Health Nursing
  • Community Health Nursing
  • Older Adult Health
  • Nursing Leadership
  • Transitions to Practice

The School of Nursing is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing and approved by the Maine State Board of Nursing.

Learn about UNE’s Nursing Skills Lab

Career Paths for Nursing Majors

Providing a firm liberal arts foundation, UNE’s B.S. in Nursing will help you develop essential critical thinking and communication skills as well as theoretical, evidence-based knowledge of nursing science. And with more than 550 hours of hands-on learning, you will be well on your way to a fulfilling career in professional nursing. As a nurse, you may work in a variety of settings, including:

  • Acute care (hospitals)
  • Primary care
  • Long-term care facilities
  • Public and private schools
  • Federal, state, and local health departments
  • Home health care
  • Accountable care organizations

Career Advising in the Nursing Program

Whether you have a specific career goal in mind or a vague idea of the field that interests you, Career Advising is here to help you plan your next step.

Nursing By The Numbers

15%

Expected rate of nursing job growth from 2016 to 2026, with 438,100 new nursing positions

98%

of UNE Nursing students pass the NCLEX on the first try

2023

Facilities

Harold Alfond Forum

The Harold Alfond Forum, which opened in 2012, includes a 105,000-square-foot athletics complex featuring: an ice hockey rink with 900 seats; a basketball court with 1,200 seats; classroom space; a fitness center; and multi-purpose indoor practice courts that can also be used for performances and other events, with a combined seating capacity of 3,000.

It also houses the Athletic Training and Applied Exercise Science programs, which have custom-designed teaching and laboratory spaces.

Take a virtual tour of Alfond Forum

The Interprofessional Simulation and Innovation Center

The Interprofessional Simulation and Innovation Center has a presence on UNE's Portland and Biddeford campuses. In Portland, it occupies two floors in the Blewett Science Building, adjacent to skills laboratories and classrooms. In Biddeford, it has dedicated space in the Harold Alfond Forum. The center offers three simulation labs with adjoining fully-equipped control rooms, a task training lab, and a debriefing classroom. The center also has dedicated space for staff offices, welcoming visitors, and storage. All of the labs are flexible and fully equipped for audiovisual recording, presentations, and debriefing.

Take a virtual tour of Innovation Hall

Center to Advance Interprofessional Education and Practice

UNE is one of a handful of private universities with a comprehensive health education mission that includes medicine, pharmacy, dental medicine, nursing, and an array of allied health profession programs. In UNE’s social work program, you will take part in interprofessional education initiatives that prepare you to work with other aspiring health professionals to practice comprehensive and collaborative team-based care. Through service-learning and field experiences, you benefit from exercises that also include students from other UNE health discipline programs.

WCHP Office of Service Learning

Service-learning initiatives connect students, faculty, and professional staff with opportunities to engage in meaningful and mutually beneficial service activities within a variety of community settings. Service-learning instills for students a lifelong commitment towards helping others, while positively impacting individual, family, and community health outcomes among populations served. Examples of service-learning include working with the homeless population, implementing health fairs, and developing age-appropriate recreational activities at a local Boys and Girls Club.

Experiential Learning in Nursing

Whether you’re practicing basic skills on fellow nursing students, learning emergency medical techniques with life-like simulation mannequins, or caring for patients in clinical practice settings, in UNE’s B.S. in Nursing program, you’re always learning by doing.

Service Learning

Our Service Learning Program enables you to care for vulnerable populations in our community. You may work with a variety of agencies and nonprofits, including:

  • Homeless Health Outreach
  • Partners for World Health
  • Cumberland County Jail
  • Boys and Girls Clubs
  • Southern Maine Area Agency on Aging
  • Maine Access Immigrant Network

Interprofessional Education

  • Prepare for modern, team-based care in UNE’s Center to Advance Interprofessional Education and Practice.
  • Work with students in a wide range of different health professions programs to provide quality, patient-centered care.
  • Reap the personal and professional benefits of graduating from one of only a handful of private universities with a comprehensive health care mission.

Cross Cultural Health Immersion

  • Take our travel course to Ghana, Africa and learn how to integrate western health practices with folk medicine.
  • Broaden your worldview and begin the process of becoming a culturally sensitive health professional.
  • Evaluate health education curricula relevant to the population need.
  • Connect with UNE students from other health professions programs.

Clinical Simulation Program

The Clinical Simulation Program uses high fidelity patient simulators and patient actors to create a wide variety of learning opportunities in realistic settings. You learn to function as an individual and also as a member of an interdisciplinary health care team through these exercises. You face rarely seen cases, hard-to-diagnose cases, and other challenges of the nursing profession in the simulation labs so that when you face them in the field, you will know how to respond.

Watch: UNE Students in Ghana

Clinical Experiences

As a student in our traditional B.S.N. program, during your last four semesters you are deeply immersed in not only nursing coursework but clinical experiences that emphasize clinical judgment, health and human functioning, care and therapeutics, person and environment, and health care resources. 

Typically, you spend one or two days per week in one of the area's leading hospitals or in a community setting. The different settings serve diverse populations and allow you to actualize the process of integrating theory and practice. Our clinical partners include New England Rehabilitation Hospital, Maine Medical Center, Southern Maine Medical Center, Midcoast Hospital, and York Hospital. At these locations, you work under the direct supervision of a clinical faculty member in clinical experiences that include medical surgical nursing, gerontology, maternity, pediatrics, and other specialized areas of care.   

Global Education in Nursing

See The World

Unlike other nursing programs, we make it possible for you to spend a semester abroad — in fact, we encourage it. Choose from our programs in Morocco or Spain. Both offer lab sciences courses that will keep you on track for your nursing degree. Other short-term immersion experiences are available, including faculty-led trips to places such as Mexico, Italy, Iceland, Cuba, and Kenya; medical mission trips organized by the (IMM)UNE Club; and the unique Health Care Immersion Experience in Ghana.

Interested in studying abroad? Make a plan with your advisor.

Tuition Assistance for Nursing Students

UNE is committed to educating students with a range of tuition support needs. The dedication of generous donors allows UNE to offer robust financial aid packages that are distributed upon enrollment in our nursing programs. Scholarships are made possible in part by individuals and organizations in our community who understand the importance of adequate access to quality healthcare in our region.

  • Allan H. Saunders Endowed Scholarship
  • Barbara J. Kamm, M.S.W., '91 Endowed Scholarship
  • Elizabeth Burns Cope '44 Endowed Scholarship
  • Joann B. Thomas '81 and '84 B.S.N. Scholarship
  • Mabel I. Lalumiere, RN Memorial Scholarship
  • McCulloch Family Fund Scholarship
  • Nathan M. Desjardins Memorial Scholarship Fund

In addition, UNE has individual scholarships for nursing students that have unique criteria and application processes. These include:

Accreditation

The University of New England's Nursing Program is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN).

Contact ACEN
3343 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 850
Atlanta, Ga. 30326
(404) 975-5000
info@acenursing.org
www.acenursing.org

The program has also been approved by the Maine State Board of Nursing.

Report to communities of interest

B.S.N. Degree FAQ