The Virginia Appalachian Tricollege Nursing Program (VATNP) at Southwest Virginia Community College will move forward under a new name: Southwest Virginia Community College Nursing Program.
The VATNP has operated for over 40 years as a consortium of Mountain Empire Community College, Southwest Virginia Community College and Virginia Highlands Community College. The governing body for the VATNP has determined it to be in the best interest of each college for the consortium to dissolve, and for each of the three colleges to operate as a stand-alone program.
Southwest Virginia Community College Nursing Program will continue to be approved by the Virginia Board of Nursing and accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN). ACEN is officially recognized as the national accrediting agency for nursing education by the Council on Post-Secondary Accreditation (COPA) and by the U.S. Department of Education.
As we enter our next chapter as Southwest Virginia Community College Nursing Program, we are committed to maintaining our reputation for excellence in nursing education and will continue our strong tradition of preparing competent, professional, and clinically proficient associate degree nursing graduates.
Southwest Virginia Community College anticipates this change to be effective at the close of the Spring 2020 semester. We are also excited to announce a new Nursing cohort to serve Buchanan County that will begin Fall 2020!