In response to growing demand for advanced education in the nursing field, Columbia Southern University has launched its College of Nursing and Health Sciences, offering innovative online programs tailored to registered nurses (RNs) and health care professionals.

The new college focuses on expanding higher education opportunities for nurses beyond basic licensure according to a news release. Programs are designed to accommodate working professionals with 24/7 course access, flexible online delivery and contemporary curricula that emphasize leadership, technology, ethics and patient care improvement. Degree offerings include:
• RN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)
• RN to Master of Science in Nursing Education
• RN to Master of Science in Nursing Informatics

Bonny Kehm, Ph.D., RN, will serve as the college’s dean and assistant provost. Kehm brings a wealth of experience from her leadership roles in state, national and international nursing education. Her career includes a term as president of the Missouri State Board of Nursing from 2021 to 2023, where she focused on advancing nursing standards and education. Kehm’s approach prioritizes empowering nurses to lead change in patient care and the health care industry as a whole.

“We have developed empathic, practical degree programs to help those in the nursing field by stressing technology, health literacy, leadership, ethics and more using contemporary curricula,” Kehm said in the release. “COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 years have shown us that nurses have a strong voice and can foster change. One of our many goals is make sure nurses learn how to empower themselves to make their job, patient care and the health care industry better.”

Nancy Bellucci, Ph.D., MSN-Ed., RN, will lead the academic programming as director of the new nursing programs. With more than 18 years of experience in clinical nursing and education, Bellucci is committed to enhancing student learning through mentorship, professional socialization, and cutting-edge tools.
Bellucci developed a portion of the curriculum to incorporate Shadow Health software, giving students the opportunity to practice relevant, real-life experiences in their studies.

“Shadow Health is a software that uses avatars and virtual simulation environments to provide students with digital clinical experiences,” Bellucci said. “As some of the state boards of nursing require that nursing academic curriculum include students performing a full head-to-toe health assessment, Shadow Health affords the student with the ability to perform this requirement via a digital avatar.”

Columbia Southern University is also expanding its academic offerings beyond nursing. The university is launching additional programs, including a bachelor of science in human services, master of science in psychology, education specialist (Ed.S.) in curriculum and instruction and a doctor of fire integrated research.

The College of Nursing and Health Sciences is part of CSU’s broader growth initiative, which has introduced 54 new programs in 2024.