For all Boise State Broncos, genuine innovation means taking risks, facing challenges head on and bravely finding new solutions. Amid the School of Nursing’s positive momentum and growth in the 2000s, perhaps the biggest challenge was the ‘One Front Door’ initiative.
It began in 2002 as a single-entry nursing program where everyone started with the same curriculum. Students could enter right out of high school and, as they advanced through each semester, they would decide what level of nursing education they wanted to finish with: a practical nursing certificate, an associates degree in nursing (ADN) or a bachelor’s degree in nursing.
Enrollment numbers were ridiculously high and the educational series looked good on paper, but for many reasons ‘One Front Door’ didn’t last long.
Faculty recall it being exhausting and a “logistically massive” endeavor. One said she felt like she was in the skills labs “24 hours a day” because of the sheer volume of students, and another estimates she drove 150- 200 miles a day just to oversee clinical rotations.
One colleague smothered their entire office wall with a calendar dedicated to keeping track of program and curricula progressions. Many students started right out of high school and weren’t ready for the intensity of the program; they struggled to keep going.
“We had a lot of faculty quit before we started One Front Door, because they could see that it was not going to be a good thing,” said Marian Graham, a staff member from 1989-2023.
Additionally, there was also little incentive for students to stay in school all the way through the baccalaureate track. Hospitals didn’t require nurses to hold bachelor’s degrees, so few students pursued them.
According to Pam Springer, interim nursing department chair from 2001-2003, this was “devastating” for the baccalaureate track’s enrollment. The majority of students exited the program after earning their associates degree.
“It was really fortuitous that the College of Western Idaho opened and we were able to transition it over to a community college,” Springer said.
The College of Western Idaho evolved out of Boise State’s Selland College, which took over the practical nursing certificate and associates degree program.
The restructure turned out to be better fit for both students and institutions. It was “the right thing to do for our community and for our state,” Springer said.
These days, the school is known for its on-campus bachelor’s program: U.S. News & World Report named it #1 in Idaho three years in a row. This same program is also the state’s largest, growing in 2025 to accept 100 students every semester.