Northeast Community College Nursing Program Review

Northeast Community College (NCC, NECC) was formed as a result state legislature to merge junior and technical colleges. As such, Northeast Community College began operations after merging of Northeast Nebraska Technical College and Northeast Nebraska College.  Since, 1973, the community college has been serving Nebraska in an area representing 20 counties.  After the merge, it had the names ‘Nebraska Technical’ which were later dropped in 1991 to the current name. It offers 1 and 2-years degree, vocational, technical and liberal arts programs through four centers across Nebraska.

Nursing at Northeast Community College

At Northeast, future nursing candidates have the opportunity to choose from a number of programs available. There are two training programs for Nurse and Medication Aides and an Associate of Science in nursing degree program. The Associate degree is offered as a career mobility track whereby, students can choose to exit after the first year and earn a Diploma in practical nursing. On the other hand, students who do not wish to complete their nurse training can apply for the Pre-professional or the Transfer program. The associate degree program is fully approved by the Nebraska State Board of Nursing and accredited by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission. Details are given herein:

Basic Nurse Aide

The Basic Nurse Aide is a short 1-course training program that helps entry level students to work as nursing assistants. The course consists of 3 credit hours and prepares students for certification as nurse aides.

Medication Aide

The medication Aide program prepares the students to become assistants in all medication matters like drug administration, classification, rules, ordering and commonly used drugs.  The 3-credit hours training follows the requirement set on the state’s Medication Aide Act.

Nursing-Pre-Professional

The pre-professional nursing program offers qualified students a chance to complete general education courses required to complete an associate or diploma nursing program. Coursework completed can also be transferred to a 4-year college to cover some of the 1st and 2nd year general education requirements for a bachelor of science in nursing.

Students must completed 60 general education credits by choosing to earn an Associate of Arts (AA) or Associate of Science (AS) degree but with a pre-professional nursing focus.

Nursing-Transfer-UNMC

This unique program is meant for qualified candidates who enroll at Northeast for either an AA or AS degree with a plan to join University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) for their Bachelor of Science degree. This program does make students to gain eligibility for NCLEX-RN exam but it only covers 60 credits of both nursing and general education course required for 1st and 2nd year at UNMC. If the requirements of this program are successfully met, students seamlessly articulate into the Bachelor of Science degree program at UNMC.

Nursing

At Northeast Community College, the professional nursing program is a career mobility program where students can choose from the two options below:

Diploma-Practical Nursing

The first year of this career mobility nursing program starts with 23 nursing courses and 18 general education credits bringing it to a total of 41 credits. After completion of the first year, there is an option to exit as students are usually eligible to sit for the NCLEX-PN exam to become licensed practical nurses.

Associate Degree Nursing

 Those students who choose not to take the NCLEX-PN exam can continue and complete another two semesters of 31 credits. Having finished a total of 71 credits, such students graduate with an associate degree in nursing and become eligible to sit for the NCLEX-RN exam to become registered nurses.

Contact:
Northeast Community College
801 East Benjamin Avenue, Norfolk,
NE 68701