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Two years ago, Outlook Magazine  while he was a junior in Union’s Nursing Program. Since then, he has graduated, passed the NCLEX-RN on his first attempt, and landed a job in the intensive care unit at AdventHealth Shawnee Mission. While interviewing him for the video above, we asked a few more questions to see if the glowing report he had given of his Union experience withstood the scrutiny of post-graduation hindsight. 

“I would say it’s next level,” Wehling said. “It’s top tier teaching that you receive at Union. With the simulation center, clinical experiences, and observations, I don’t think you could pack more preparation in.” 

“A lot of people say the Nursing Program is difficult,” Wehling continued. “It is hard. But hard programs make good nurses. If I was in that hospital bed, I would want a good nurse, and Union produces high quality nurses. It’s not hard just for the sake of making life difficult for students. The faculty want you to be a better nurse.” 

The summer before his senior year, Wehling completed an externship in a medical/surgical intensive care unit at Kettering Health in Ohio. “We had our pick of pretty much anywhere,” he said. “Kettering came to our campus and showed us why their program would be a good place for us to learn. What drew me in was that not only did I get paid, but I also got free room and board.” 

At the end of the summer, the unit manager offered him a permanent position. Though he had other plans, Wehling says it was, “very cool to get a job offer.” 

In Wehling’s experience, his nursing degree from Union really opened doors for employment. “People love Union-educated nurses,” he said. “They roll out the red carpet for the Union nurses. If there’s a choice between a state university graduate and a Union graduate, they’re probably going to take the Union nurse. It’s great job security.” 

He identified three features of Union’s nursing program he found particularly valuable: 

• The simulation center. “It’s like you’re in a real hospital,” Wehling said. “There are patient rooms, doctors, phone calls, medications, and different scenarios that can happen. The simulator’s heart rate can stop, and you have to do chest compressions. It’s as close as you can get to being a real hospital experience. The simulations let you prove you are competent as a nurse before heading out into the real world  but without the consequence of real patients. It’s not just for testing. You’ll learn something in a lecture, and then you walk right out the door and perform it. That very moment. The simulation center gives an instant connection between classroom and bedside.” 
• The Global Health Nursing class trip. “Our trip to Peru was so much fun,” he said. “You get to know your professors more as friends and coworkers rather than just teachers. The class taught us everything we needed to know to go into an area with limited health care access: skills such as suturing wounds, how to prepare water correctly, how to clean different types of wounds or what rashes and viruses we could expect.”
• The friendly and collaborative culture. “Your nursing cohort is a very tight-knit group,” he explained. “I mean, level one, first semester, you’re kind of like, ‘Oh, hi. Nice to meet you.’ But by level three and four, you’ve become best buddies. We’re all going through this together, and we’re going to all make it through together.”

Union’s Nursing Program admits new classes in both January and August with no waitlist. If you know someone looking for a top-tier nursing education, encourage them to follow Wehling’s example and .