Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing

Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing sits next to OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois, and has educated nurses for more than 100 years. The private college offers traditional and online BSN degrees along with MSN and DNP programs for nurses pursuing advanced practice.

The BSN curriculum totals 124 semester hours, split between 59 hours of pre-nursing coursework, which students may complete at a college of their choice, and 65 hours within the nursing major itself. Clinical training takes place primarily next door at OSF Saint Francis, a Level I Trauma Center and Magnet-recognized tertiary medical center affiliated with the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria.

The college is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, and its graduates consistently outperform both state and national NCLEX-RN pass rates, with the college's pass rate exceeding the state average of 85 percent and the national average of 89 percent. Its direct tie to a Level I trauma center gives students hands-on exposure to high-acuity care uncommon at smaller nursing colleges.