Fort Lewis College (FLC) and the University of Colorado (CU) Anschutz Medical Campus College of Nursing have established a collaborative program offering a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. This partnership enables FLC students to complete their nursing education entirely on the FLC campus. Nursing education is notorious for high textbook costs, so FLC and CU have partnered to develop a Z-degree for undergraduate nursing students. This presentation will outline the process and strategies we implemented in our first year and how that helped us determine what was needed for future years. We will highlight key steps towards going from a program with textbook costs in every class to a Z-degree pathway. Additionally, we will discuss the challenges encountered and lessons learned from our first year of implementation.
