History. Tradition. And an eye to the future.
All combine at Oklahoma Baptist University.
For 64 consecutive years, OBU nurses have gone on to deliver quality, compassionate care with an education grounded in faith and ethics.
Dr. Robbie Henson was recently appointed as dean of the OBU College of Nursing, having served on its faculty for 29 years. She had served as interim dean since August 2019 and is the Lawrence C. and Marion V. Harris Chair of Nursing. She also teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate programs in the College of Nursing. She has clinical experience in a wide range of specialties including adult medical-surgical, intensive care, home health, psychiatric-mental health, and maternal-newborn nursing. She earned her BSN at OBU and knows firsthand the tremendous education offered in the OBU College of Nursing.
“Our graduates are very much in demand in Oklahoma and all the way down to the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex,” Henson said.
RICH HISTORY
The school’s baccalaureate program was the first approved in the state, graduating its first class in 1956. For decades, OBU nursing graduates have been in high demand, and that tradition of excellence entered a new era four years ago with the state-of-the-art Stavros Hall, the new home for the College. The 32,000-square-foot facility was designed to provide cutting-edge nursing education for both undergraduate and graduate-level students.
Opened in 2016, it is located on the northeast corner of the OBU campus in Shawnee. The facility features six high-fidelity skills simulation labs, a mid-fidelity skills lab, a health assessment lab, and a home health and bathing training room, totaling 24 beds. The high-tech simulation labs are equipped with the industry’s most advanced medical simulation solutions, providing students with realistic training scenarios for their future nursing careers.
“It’s a beautiful building with state-of-the-art simulations and skills labs,” Henson said of Stavros Hall. It has been featured on news programs in the Oklahoma City area, as well as statewide.
The acute care setting gives students a hands-on feel of a true hospital unit. With full control of the state-of-the-art human simulators, instructors train future nurses to expect the unexpected and react with life-saving speed to evolving situations in real-time. The building’s video technology allows instructors to offer the best possible feedback to students, as they review the scenario together following each simulation.
“We have really wonderful facilities and amazing faculty for both teaching and learning,” Henson said.
Class sizes in OBU’s College of Nursing tend to be small with only 35 to 45 students in each of the junior and senior classes allowing for hands-on instruction.
“That really says you’re going to get to know your faculty and have access to the resources that you need for assistance. You are going to make lifelong friends and mentors too,” Henson said. “We know our students well and very intentionally pour into their lives.”
OBU is coming off another 100-percent NCLEX pass rate with its most recent graduating class. The University’s nursing graduates typically post pass rate percentiles in the upper 90s.
“We have a very strong trend in our pass rates,” Henson said.
Another unique feature is the school’s ethical focus.
“Has there ever been a more critical time in history when students needed to develop a worldview with faith and justice?” Henson said. “That, I think, is one of the most important things we offer. Having a focus on society’s needs, ethics, and faith in today’s world is huge.”
OBU also offers the RN to BSN degree with the same core focus. This fully-online program can be completed in as little as 12 months.
OBU’s master’s degree in nursing education can also be completed in 15 months, completely online.
“The OBU College of Nursing has done an outstanding job with our BSN completion and MSN programs, bringing those same core mission pieces to those who already have their RN and those who are looking for the next step in their nursing career.” For more information visit: https://www.okbu.edu/nursing/index.html
