Virginia's Best Nursing Schools for 2020

John Tyler Community College is located in Chester, Virginia.  They offer an ADN degree with two tracks.  The traditional track has classroom time Monday through Friday, with clinical experiences that may be days, evenings and/or weekends.  The Hybrid Distance Education Track (HDET) is delivered online, with occasional participation on-campus.  Clinical experiences are still days, evenings and/or weekends.

Rappahannock Community College is located in Glenns, Virginia.  They offer an ADN program that is completed in five semesters. They also have recently offered an advanced placement option for LPNs.  RCC broke ground in 1970 and opened its doors in 1971.

Germanna Community College is located in Locust Grove, Virginia.  They offer an ADN degree.  They also offer an LPN advanced placement option. Programs must be completed on a full-time basis.  They also offer a variety of other programs, such as an LPN program, a nurse’s aide program, and a surgical nurse program, which is a program for LPNs to learn how to be a surgical scrub nurse.

New River Community College is located in Dublin, Virginia.  NRCC offers an ADN program and an LPN to RN bridge program.  The bridge program can be completed in 3 semesters.  Botth programs can be extended and be completed on a part-time basis.

Lord Fairfax Community College has four campuses in Virginia – Middletown, Luray, and two in Warrenton.  They offer an ADN program, with an LPN bridge option and a paramedic bridge option.  The nursing program opened its doors in 2000, graduating its first nurses in 2002.  The NCLEX-RN pass rate for their first graduating class was 72.4%, which has increased steadily since that time.  In fact, in 2015, one campuses had a 100% pass rate and the other had 98.04% pass rate.

Sentara College of Health Sciences is located in Chesapeake, Virginia.  Sentara College is a division of Sentara Healthcare; it seeks to educate healthcare professionals in a variety of careers, but especially nursing.  Not only do they offer a BSN program, but they offer an online RN to BSN program, an option for LPNs to join their BSN program and they also allow for early entrance into the program for college freshman.

Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing is located in Richmond, Virginia.  They offer a traditional BSN degree and an online RN to BSN degree.  The online program can be completed on a full-time or part-time basis and is designed with the working nurse in mind.  The college has a Clinical Simulator Center, which offers an 8-bed Med/Surg unit, an adult critical care unit, a pediatric unit and a maternal/child unit.

Liberty University is located in Lynchburg, Virginia.  They offer a BSN program, which is available to residential students, and an online RN to BSN program.  Most students complete the program in 2 years.

James Madison University is located in Harrisonburg, Viriginia.  JMU offers a tradtional BSN degree and an online RN to BSN degree.  The RN to BSN program can also be utilized for students looking to earn a second bachelor’s degree.  The program can be done full-time, in one year, or part-time, in two years.

Hampton University offers Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), Accelerated LPN to BSN and RN to BSN, MS and PhD

Old Dominion University is located in Norfolk, Virginia.  They offer a pre-licensure BSN program (designed for new college students) and a post-licensure program (for RNs seeking a BSN degree).  They also offer several graduate options, some of which are offered online.  ODU originated in 1930 as a division of The College of William and Mary; it became a separate institution in 1962 and gained university status in 1969.