Nursing Curriculum and Learning Aims

Loyola University Maryland’s upcoming Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program has been approved by The Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) and the Maryland Board of Nursing (MBON). We are preparing to welcome our first BSN cohort in Fall of 2025.

As a nurse educated in Loyola’s transformative environment of learning, you will establish your health care credentials in a multidisciplinary setting that sets high expectations in all areas of learning. You will grow into your identity as a nurse as you progress through your four years at Loyola. 

Following your successful admission to Loyola’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Program, you will begin at Loyola as a BSN student—a differentiating factor from many other undergraduate nursing programs. In fact, you will take your first nursing-themed class during your first semester at Loyola.

The nursing major is comprised of 61 credits of nursing theory and clinicals, 42 credits of prerequisite and other natural sciences, psychology, and statistics, and 30 credits of Loyola’s liberal arts-based core curriculum. The BSN students’ liberal arts core is the same as other Loyola students’. Your natural sciences and social sciences prerequisites are taken with your non-nursing peers and augmented with hands-on learning in our state-of-the-art biology laboratories.

Gain Experience in a Hospital Recognized Nationally for Nursing Excellence

Your education in direct patient care includes a wide range of clinical rotations at Mercy Medical Center, our nursing education partner. Mercy is recognized for its nursing excellence with American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet designation—a distinction held by fewer than 10% of U.S. hospitals. This makes Mercy Medical Center an inspiring environment for you to learn from experienced clinical nurse educators and interact with patients.

Mercy will become your second home as you progress through your nursing clinical placements. Each of your nine clinical placements will lead you to practice and reflect on a critically important aspect of nursing, which involves caring for patients of all ages and in a wide variety of settings.

Mercy Medical Center and Loyola University Maryland share a deeply felt commitment to Baltimore, a city that has been the home of these two Catholic institutions for more than 150 years. Your clinicals will incorporate ethical and social justice perspectives that you have explored in the classroom. 

Sample Four-Year Nursing Major Plan

The following provides an overview of what a BSN nursing student at Loyola can expect in their four-year academic program. Note this is a sample and that some specifics, such as exact course titles, are subject to change. A student’s academic advisor will work closely with them to support their successful progression throughout all four years.

First Year

Sophomore Year

Junior Year

Senior Year

Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree: 133 Credits

*The heart of our liberal arts education, Loyola’s core curriculum exposes you to diverse subjects and approaches to many academic sectors and fields and includes humanities studies in ethics, fine arts, diversity and justice, a world language, literature, philosophy, theology, and writing. Students can choose from a range of humanities course offerings within each field or subject to meet their humanities-related core requirements.

Learning Aims for Loyola’s Nursing Major

Loyola’s BSN program’s learning aims prepare students for a dynamic profession:

1. Establish knowledge, skills, and habits to learn, lead, and serve as a registered nurse in a diverse and changing world;
2. Demonstrate clinical judgment and clinical decision-making skills that are informed by liberal arts studies, evidence-based nursing scholarship, and clinical learning;
3. Deliver safe and patient-centered nursing care to diverse patients across the span of their life, in various health care settings, and in all four spheres of care: prevention/promotion of health, chronic illness, critical/acute care, and palliative care;
4. Communicate effectively to promote health, coordinate care, advocate for patients, and advance the values of the nursing profession;
5. Use patient information systems and technologies confidently in direct patient care and demonstrate understanding of nursing informatics; and
6. Collaborate effectively and with professionalism in an interprofessional environment and lead by using one’s knowledge of patient care, health care systems, and nursing scholarship.

Pathways to Continued Education

Loyola’s BSN program is designed to establish a foundation for life-long learning. Loyola University Maryland and Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU) have signed a memorandum of understanding that allows select Loyola BSN graduates to receive priority consideration for admission to NDMU’s Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) Program, which offers MSN in Nursing Leadership and MSN in Nursing Education concentrations, designed for part-time study for busy nursing professionals.