{"id":198038,"date":"2025-09-25T16:26:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T22:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/nursing\/?p=198038"},"modified":"2026-06-29T16:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T22:36:14","slug":"challenge-one-front-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/nursing\/2025\/09\/25\/challenge-one-front-door\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing challenges head on: The &#8216;One Front Door&#8217; initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For all Boise State Broncos, genuine innovation means taking risks, facing challenges head on and bravely finding new solutions. Amid the School of Nursing&#8217;s positive momentum and growth in the 2000s, perhaps the biggest challenge was the \u2018One Front Door\u2019 initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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\u2019s degree in nursing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Enrollment numbers were ridiculously high and the educational series looked good on paper, but for many reasons \u2018One Front Door\u2019 didn\u2019t last long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/nursing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2025\/09\/bsu-disc-jomikel_web-opt.jpg\" alt=\"Historical photo of two people viewing a folder by a poster that says The One Front Door Nursing Program\" class=\"wp-image-198108\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A nursing recruitment booth spotlights the One Front Door program.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Faculty recall it being exhausting and a &#8220;logistically massive&#8221; endeavor. One said she felt like she was in the skills labs \u201c24 hours a day\u201d because of the sheer volume of students, and another estimates she drove 150- 200 miles a day just to oversee clinical rotations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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\u2019t ready for the intensity of the program; they struggled to keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;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,&#8221; said Marian Graham, a staff member from 1989-2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"885\" height=\"664\" src=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/nursing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2025\/09\/Picture-057-web-opt.jpg\" alt=\"Nursing students in a room crowded with supplies read papers and assess each other's vitals.\" class=\"wp-image-198041\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Students learning about health assessment in fall of 2007.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additionally, there was also little incentive for students to stay in school all the way through the baccalaureate track. Hospitals didn\u2019t require nurses to hold bachelor\u2019s degrees, so few students pursued them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Pam Springer, interim nursing department chair from 2001-2003, this was \u201cdevastating\u201d for the baccalaureate track\u2019s enrollment. The majority of students exited the program after earning their associates degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt was really fortuitous that the College of Western Idaho opened and we were able to transition it over to a community college,\u201d Springer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The College of Western Idaho <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idahopress.com\/news\/selland-college-joins-cwi\/article_872fe775-5944-5910-9991-94514016899e.html\">evolved out of Boise State\u2019s Selland College<\/a>, which took over the practical nursing certificate and associates degree program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The restructure turned out to be better fit for both students and institutions. It was \u201cthe right thing to do for our community and for our state,\u201d Springer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These days, the school is known for its on-campus bachelor\u2019s program: U.S. News &amp; World Report <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/best-colleges\/rankings\/nursing-overall?schoolName=Boise+State+University&amp;myCollege=nursing&amp;_sort=rank&amp;_sortDirection=asc\">named it<\/a> #1 in Idaho three years in a row. This same program is also <a href=\"https:\/\/idahobusinessreview.com\/2025\/07\/16\/boise-state-nursing-program-expands\/\">the state\u2019s largest<\/a>, growing in 2025 to accept 100 students every semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/nursing\/anniversary\/\">Discover more school history<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For all Boise State Broncos, genuine innovation means taking risks, facing challenges head on and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3526,"featured_media":198108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[361],"tags":[4130],"class_list":["post-198038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-son","tag-history"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Facing challenges head on: The &#039;One Front Door&#039; initiative - School of Nursing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Amid the School of Nursing&#039;s positive momentum and growth in the 2000s, perhaps the biggest challenge was the \u2018One Front Door\u2019 initiative.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/nursing\/2025\/09\/25\/challenge-one-front-door\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Facing challenges head on: The &#039;One Front Door&#039; initiative\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For all Boise State Broncos, genuine innovation means taking risks, facing challenges head on and bravely finding new solutions. Amid the School of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/nursing\/2025\/09\/25\/challenge-one-front-door\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"School of Nursing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BoiseStateSON\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-25T22:26:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-29T22:36:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/nursing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2025\/09\/bsu-disc-jomikel_web-opt.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katherine Denagy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BoiseStateNurse\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@BoiseStateNurse\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katherine Denagy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/nursing\/2025\/09\/25\/challenge-one-front-door\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/nursing\/2025\/09\/25\/challenge-one-front-door\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Katherine Denagy\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/nursing\/#\/schema\/person\/0ff5e5de1dadcc984dc81b9a0f9e5162\"},\"headline\":\"Facing challenges head on: The &#8216;One Front Door&#8217; 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