Stony Brook University School of Nursing’s Online Master’s Program was ranked ninth in the nation by a survey published by U.S. News and World Report in its 2021 College Rankings. This is the second year in a row that the program was ranked in the top 10. In 2020, the program was ranked 7th.
In a statement released by the University, officials said that the decline in ranking might have been due to the slight decline in faculty numbers. They said that this was attributed to difficulty in hiring because of the pandemic.
Nevertheless, the program has remained in the top 20 for online graduate nursing programs in all but one of the past eight years.
According to U.S. News, online graduate nursing data used as methodology to calculate the rankings included five areas of data: engagement (30 percent); expert opinion (20 percent); faculty credentialing and training (20 percent); services and technologies (20 percent); and student excellence (10 percent).
The School of Nursing began offering online education in 1994 with a Midwifery program.
“Our longstanding experience became critical to continued success with online learning this past year in responding to the health care needs and educational changes during the pandemic,” says Annette Wysocki, PhD, RN, FAAN, Dean of the School of Nursing. “Our constant attention to content and presentation methods provides students with visual, graphic and other ways to access content, and this even includes active engagement with simulated clinical experiences within online educational platforms.”