The University of Wyoming UWYO Magazine featured Alex Milberger and the BRAND program ("Bachelors Reach for Accelerated Nursing Degree") in the May 2014 issue of the quarterly magazine. The UW School of Nursing partners with UW Outreach School to offer the BRAND program to students with a prior non-nursing bachelor's degree. An excerpt from the UW Outreach School article follows:
Milberger graduated in August 2013 with his BRAND degree, which is a joint program between the UW Outreach School and the UW Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing. He now works as a nurse on the neurological floor at Wyoming Medical Center in Casper, Wyoming. The Casper native already had a bachelor’s in community health from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota and appreciated the accelerated nursing option, which allows those with a bachelor’s degree to complete the program in 15 months, including a summer in Laramie, online coursework and clinical rotations around the state.
“I talked to a former graduate, and I liked the idea of an accelerated nursing program and the fact I’d get to stay in Wyoming,” he says. “I think the experience you get going to different facilities is great.
“In nursing you can do so many things—you can work in clinics, you can work in a hospital, and even within a hospital setting your role can be so diverse. It was nice to go into a field that had a lot of options,” Milberger says. “Now I’m in a career where I get very good wages and health benefits.”
He says all nurses have a similar goal: “Anyone who is in the nursing field hopes to help people through tough times and get them back to functioning at 100 percent or as close as they can get to that.”
For the complete article about UW outreach courses and student experiences, check on the UWYO Magazine web page for archives.