William Paterson University establishes School of Nursing

William Paterson University on Monday announced the fall 2023 semester will debut the School of Nursing within its College of Science and Health. With more than five decades of experience, Dr. Minerva Salinas Guttman will serve as founding associate dean.

Offering degrees on the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels, the Wayne-based university’s nursing program has grown to become one of the largest in the state.

Guttman most recently served as the Ferguson Endowed Chair in the Henry P. Becton School of Nursing and Applied Health at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

“We are excited to welcome Dr. Guttman to William Paterson as founding associate dean of our new School of Nursing,” William Paterson President Richard Helldobler said. “Our nursing programs have experienced tremendous growth in recent years, demonstrating how vital William Paterson and our graduates are to the future of New Jersey health care. Under Dr. Guttman’s leadership, our new School of Nursing will allow us to sustain and leverage that growth to expand strategic partnerships with health care providers and better serve our students and alumni.”

Since 2019, William Paterson says enrollment in nursing degree programs has surged. Undergraduate nursing enrollment has more than doubled, from 431 students to 1,058 students, and graduate enrollment has tripled, from 190 to 713 students.

“Our nursing program, now one of the largest in the state, is serving a critical need in meeting the health care needs of New Jersey and beyond,” Joshua Powers, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs said. “Dr. Guttman’s leadership in nursing curriculum and program development, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and her work in building community, business and industry connections, will be instrumental as she collaborates with our excellent faculty and administration to further the school’s growth and development, and the success of our students.”

William Paterson University, which launched its nursing program in 1966, today offers a wide variety of nursing degrees at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels. In 2010, the institution established its first doctoral program, the doctor of nursing practice degree, to provide advanced practice nurses with preparation for leadership roles in health care.

The School of Nursing will be housed in University Hall.

Nursing facilities include six patient simulation laboratories as part of the Nel Bolger, RN Laboratories, with control and debriefing rooms to provide enhanced clinical training, as well as three state-of-the-art nursing basic skills labs.

William Paterson’s nursing program is affiliated with more than 50 cooperating agencies in the surrounding North Jersey region, including major hospital and medical centers, public health agencies, clinics, and nursing homes.

In addition to campus-based programs in nursing, the university offers a fully online undergraduate RN to BSN program and 12 fully online master’s degree and certificate programs in nursing. Its programs are nationally accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.

Guttman spent more than two decades at Fairleigh Dickinson University. From 1999 to 2021, she was director of the Henry P. Becton School of Nursing and Allied Health, and, since 2011, she held the Ferguson Endowed Chair. Prior to joining FDU, she served as an assistant dean in the University of Medicine and Dentistry of Nursing School of Nursing and chair of the UMDNJ/Middlesex County College associate degree program in nursing. Previously, she was a nursing professor and administrator at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, and an instructor at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center College of Nursing, Beth Israel School of Nursing and General Hospital School of Nursing in Manila, Philippines.