Technical Certificate in Practical Nursing

The Practical Nursing Technical Certificate provides an educational curriculum approved by the Arkansas State Board of Nursing to allow students to be eligible to take the licensure exam for Practical Nurses.

The goal of the Practical Nursing Program is to provide entry-level knowledge, skills, and employment skills for the graduate nurse. Specific entrance requirements, progression, attendance, criminal background checks, drug screening, and grading policies apply to the Practical Nursing Certificate Program. Due to clinical placement requirements, the student criminal record may be reason for rejection or withdrawal of admission. Contact the Program Director for further information.

Note: There is a special application and deadline for this program.

Hope Campus

The Hope Campus Practical Nursing Program applications are available March 1 through May 1. Deadline for application into the program is May 1. Courses taken in the Spring of application year will be considered in the application process. Entrance into the program is based on space availability, time of prerequisite completion, total entrance score, and criminal background clearance. All applicants must complete an entrance exam before May 1st of the application year. The entrance exam will be at the expense of the applicant. Applicant will receive a total entrance score using the 4 prerequisite course GPA x10 plus the entrance exam score. Students taking Human A&P I and II can potentially increase total GPA points for this application due to extra credit hours in those courses. Applicants will be ranked and selected based on their total entrance scores. Specific entrance policies are available in the program brochure.

Texarkana Campus

The Texarkana Campus Practical Nursing Program applications are available September 1 through November 1. Deadline for application into the program is November 1. Courses taken in the Fall of application year will be considered in the application process. Entrance into the program is based on space availability, time of prerequisite completion, total entrance score, and criminal background clearance. All applicants must complete an entrance exam before November 1st of the application year. The entrance exam will be at the expense of the applicant. Applicant will receive a total entrance score using the 4 prerequisite course GPA x10 plus the entrance exam score. Applicants will be ranked and selected based on their total entrance scores. Specific entrance policies are available in the program brochure.

A current American Heart Association CPR certification and current health card (TB Skin Test) is required prior to clinical experience. NURS courses do not follow the typical college schedule. In order to provide a variety of learning experiences, students are scheduled clinical rotations at health care agencies throughout the surrounding area. Clinical hours include day, evening, night, and weekend rotations.

Readmission: Students seeking readmission or transfer are allowed only one (1) readmission. This one (1) readmission counts admissions from all nursing programs (RN or LPN). Students may have up to two (2) nursing program admissions total. Readmission is contingent upon available space. All requests for readmission are reviewed by the nursing faculty. Readmitted students must complete all nursing course work from the beginning of the program. Students with recorded disciplinary actions will not be considered for readmission.

Students whose score is less than 19 Reading on ACT or comparable placement test scores must have successful completion of remediation (Comp I ready by scores or coursework).

Degree Checklist
Program Pass Rates

For more information, call 870-722-8505.