The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.Sc.N.) (S118) is a four-year collaborative degree program offered in partnership with George Brown, Toronto Metropolitan University, and Centennial College. Students admitted to the George Brown program complete their first two years at the George Brown campus and their final two years at the Toronto Metropolitan University campus. Throughout this four-year program, students can expect to be taught by faculty from both program streams.

This Bachelor of Science in Nursing program is committed to preparing nursing leaders who are highly competent, knowledgeable, and committed to playing an integral role in shaping our health-care future. The program educates nurses to work with persons and communities of diverse backgrounds, ages, degrees of health and illness, and in a variety of contexts.

The Bachelor of Science in Nursing curriculum, based on a philosophical foundation of phenomenology and critical social theory, has five themes that serve to organize content and are reflected in all years of the program in varying degrees of depth.

These five themes are:

1. primary health care/health promotion
2. reflective practice/critical thinking
3. meaningful relationships/caring/communication
4. political/social justice  
5. personal/professional development

The program is also underpinned by several important concepts, addressed, discussed, and threaded throughout the Professional Practice in Nursing courses that are required across all four years.

These concepts include the following:

• safety
• scholarship
• relational practice
• determinants of health
• diversity
• professional nursing practice
• leadership
• health systems
• teaching/learning

The curriculum is comprised of professional nursing courses and series of required and elective courses selected from other disciplines to enhance and support the broad knowledge base required of professional nurses. Students complete required professionally related courses in anatomy and physiology, microbiology, and psychology. Students are also required to select courses from a variety of liberal studies and open electives.

Learning is characterized as an interactive, lifelong process that involves the development of the learner as a person. Nursing students are recognized as adult learners responsible for their learning. This learning is fostered by a caring, collaborative student-educator relationship based on mutual trust and respect, where both students and educators are learners.

Year 1 and Year II – Studies to be completed at George Brown’s Waterfront Campus

Year I of the program focuses on knowledge of self in the context of health. The student develops a theoretical perspective from which to view practice and an appreciation of the cultural diversity within the social and political context of society. There is an emphasis on the development of effective communication abilities and foundational nursing practice and health assessment skills.

In Year II, the focus of the program shifts to knowledge of others in the context of illness, including chronic and acute illness and end-of-life care. Students further develop their professional role in building therapeutic relationships with families. They also acquire knowledge of research methods and the ability to critically evaluate research findings for their utility in nursing practice.

Year III and Year IV – Studies to be completed at Toronto Metropolitan University’s campus

In Year III, students further develop the theme of health with an emphasis on knowledge of community, in the context of primary health care. Students acquire knowledge and skills in areas of maternal/child health, pediatrics and mental health. There is an emphasis on leadership, advocacy and social activism.

Year IV focuses on the integration of the professional self into the health-care system as students prepare to transition to the role of a new graduate nurse. Students explore in-depth issues related to professional practice and demonstrate leadership skills.

Nursing practice experiences begin in the first year of the program and expose students to a broad range of clinical practice settings and the multiplicity of nursing roles. Nursing experiences occur primarily in community settings and hospitals within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Travel to various agencies throughout the GTA is an expectation.

Graduates of the George Brown College, Toronto Metropolitan University, and Centennial College Collaborative Nursing Degree Program are eligible to write the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), and apply for registration with the College of Nurses of Ontario to become a Registered Nurse. New graduates will have access to career opportunities in acute, chronic or long-term care hospitals and institutions; clinics and community health organizations; public and occupational health settings; education, research, nursing administration, management and leadership roles.

PLEASE NOTE: Public Health continues to recommend that people working with vulnerable communities be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Clinical agency partners continue to require students to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to be approved to complete clinical placements within their facilities. Agencies have the right to decline the placement of students who are not fully vaccinated, and students who are not vaccinated are at risk of not being able to complete their clinical placement course requirements.