School of Nursing Partners With MedStar Washington Hospital Center

Students in the W² program will be guaranteed scholarships, employment at the hospital center.

March 24, 2014

GW School of Nursing

A new partnership between the George Washington University School of Nursing and MedStar Washington Hospital Center, named Washington Squared (W2), will offer scholarship benefits and the promise of employment to GW’s accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing students during the next six years.

The partnership is called “Washington Squared” because it brings together the rigor of the GW School of Nursing academic program and the robust clinical experience of the Hospital Center.

Under the agreement, students in the W2 cohort will earn their B.S.N. at GW’s School of Nursing, fulfill their clinical rotations at the Hospital Center and are guaranteed employment at the Hospital Center upon successful W2 completion. Students in the program will also receive a 50 percent tuition scholarship.

MedStar Washington Hospital Center clinical educators will be appointed to the GW School of Nursing to supervise clinical rotations at the hospital and as faculty for the instructional portion of W2. These professionals also will participate in faculty meetings and serve on committees and workgroups.

“We’re very pleased about this partnership with MedStar Washington Hospital Center, a major teaching and research hospital, and look forward to collaborating with the expertise of Hospital Center nurse educators who will help educate and guide our accelerated B.S.N. students during their clinical experiences,” said Billinda Tebbenhoff, associate dean for undergraduate studies at the GW School of Nursing. Catherine Reisenberg, senior clinical nursing instructor at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, is the W2 program director and will coordinate the clinical component of the program with Dr. Tebbenhoff.

GW’s 15-month on-campus accelerated B.S.N. is designed for students who earned a bachelor’s degree in another discipline and want to become nurses. It attracts applicants ranging from recent college graduates to parents interested in re-entering the workforce to professionals establishing a second or even third career.

“We deeply appreciate the critical thinking and professionalism these second-degree B.S.N. students provide,” said MedStar Washington Hospital Center Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive Susan Eckert. “That is why we are so thrilled to be partnering with the world-class nursing education at GW.”

The GW School of Nursing requires that students interested in W2 complete the school’s regular admissions process. A separate application is necessary for W2, and the Hospital Center has discretion in selecting the W2 scholarship award recipients and clinical placements. Nine cohorts of students will likely be admitted to W2, with the first cohort admitted this fall, followed by cohort admissions each spring and fall semester until 2018. The School of Nursing has already received 121 applications for the first cohort’s 24 vacancies.