Lawrence Technological University is building nurses differently.
While most nursing programs make students spend two years grinding through prerequisites before ever touching a patient, LTU drops them into the discipline from day one. The university’s fast-growing nursing program uses a direct admission model that is turning heads in a field desperate for talent.
“We’re a direct admission program. Students start right from high school or right at entry in the nursing program, so they declare their major right from the start,” said Dr. Margaret Glembocki, program director and associate professor of nursing at LTU.
That immediacy extends into the classroom and beyond. Students work in simulation labs, rotate through local hospitals, and are immersed in what Glembocki calls the “art” as well as the science of nursing - a philosophy rooted in relationship-based care.
“When employers hire those students, they will see their culture will change and they will develop communities of support and compassion,” Glembocki said.
For students, the difference is palpable. Marisa Zilli, a current LTU nursing student, said the program wastes no time putting theory into practice.
“From the very first, like the start, we are practicing skills, we work in a simulation lab, and we also get a lot of clinical experience,” Zilli said.
She credited the program’s small cohort structure as a key advantage. Rather than getting lost in a lecture hall of hundreds, students receive individualized attention that builds both skill and confidence.
“With the smaller group and the smaller program, you get more support from the professors,” Zilli said. Walking into a patient’s room for the first time is nerve-wracking, she added, but the environment helps. “You get more confident, and with the teacher’s skill set, you learn how to assess it, use your intuition.”
Glembocki said the program also encourages students to stay engaged beyond the classroom - through student organizations, athletics, and campus life - an opportunity she says is rare in nursing education.
The stakes, she added, are high. “Nursing school is so challenging. If you don’t have compassionate faculty, the students are not going to thrive.”
More information about LTU’s nursing program is available at ltu.edu/programs/nursing.