The Board of Trustees voted in favor of renaming the College of Nursing and Allied Health to the College of Nursing at their Dec. 16 meeting.

The name change to the College of Nursing is a reversion of the previous name, said Birdie Bailey, dean of the college of nursing.

“The reason it changed about 10 years ago to the College of Nursing and Allied Health was because there was a proposal to add a physical therapy program, and it was going to be housed in the college of nursing,” Bailey said. “So, because physical therapy is not a nursing program, but rather an allied health program, it was deemed then that the college should change it’s name to the College of Nursing and Allied Health, in order to house the physical therapy program.”

However, the physical therapy program never came to fruition, Bailey said.

“We continued the College of Nursing and Allied Health because there may have been some possibilities for other allied health curriculum to come that we could support,” Bailey said. “But over time, the College of Nursing and the nursing programs themselves have grown so much. Just keeping up with the nursing program really and truly would not have allowed us to add an allied health piece.”

The current name does not accurately describe the nursing program, said Zack Hillis, a sophomore.

“I think (the name change) would be a solid idea,” Hillis said. “They intended well with the current name, but they obviously never added in the allied programs. It would be a clarification of things and, in my opinion, a great idea to change it.”

The allied health name could imply different programs, said sophomore Brandi Krout, sophomore.

“With the allied health name that could be confusing to people,” Krout said. “Allied health could mean a lot of different things, and nursing is the only program in the department.”

The College of Nursing has added many new programs of its own, Bailey said.

“Since (the first name change), we’ve added the online department,” she said. “We’ve added a fuly online Resident Nurse (RN) program to the Bachelors Resident Nurse (BSN), an RN to Masters Resident Nurse (MSN) program, and an (online) MSN program. Our traditional program has grown significantly over that same period of time, and we’ve added the accelerated program to that program as well.”

“So, just keeping up with the expansion of the nursing programs would not allow for the allied health (programs).”

The faculty has helped the students by having so many paths for nursing students, Krout said.

“There’s a big job market for nurses, and the faculty is preparing us for it,” Krout said. “They are always open to communication and change. They listen to what we have to say.”

The current name doesn’t accurately describe the nursing program, said Zack Hillis, sophomore.

“I think (the name change) would be a solid idea,” Hillis said. “They intended well with the current name, but they obviously never added in the allied programs. It would be a clarification of things, and in my opinion, a great idea to change it.”

Allied health might be a foreign concept in general for prospective students, said Colby Gow, junior.

“If it’s just called the nursing department, instead of adding the other words, then someone who didn’t know anything about allied health would know what they were getting into,” Gow said. “If someone in nursing says they are in the Nursing and Allied Health Program, someone else might not know what that means. If you say, ‘I’m in the Nursing Department,’ people know exactly what you mean.”