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Cedarville University’s Master of Science in Nursing program has finally been approved and accredited.

Cedarville received approval to grant the new M.S.N. degrees from the Ohio Board of Regents and accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission of North Central Association of College and Schools, said Janet Conway, chair and professor in the department of nursing.

“Over the last few years we’ve been looking at expanding into masters education,” she said. “The last two years we worked on developing the (M.S.N.) program.”

Nursing is the largest program at Cedarville, and the masters program will allow the school to fill the increasing need for nurses and medical staff.

“With changes in the health care policy and Obamacare and other changes that are coming down, there aren’t enough advanced practice nurses to meet demands,” Conway said. There is also a lack of nurse educators, she added.

“The average age of nurses is 45, and educators is 48,” Conway said. “We have to replace ourselves in order to provide quality health care.”

Now that the program has been approved, classes are set to begin in fall 2011. The program will work with nurses with bachelor’s degrees to train them as nurse educators, primary care nurse practitioners and global health ministry nurses.

The first class of nursing masters students is expected to be 20 students. Conway said the program is expected to have around 100 students in the next five years.

The M.S.N. program offers part-time and full-time study. For more information, go to www.cedarville.edu/msn.