Dillard University School of Nursing

Dillard University's College of Nursing was the first baccalaureate nursing program in Louisiana, established in 1942 under Dillard President Albert Dent and nursing educator Rita E. Miller. The inaugural class graduated in 1947, and in 1952 the program earned full accreditation from the National League for Nursing Accreditation Commission, the predecessor to today's Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN). That makes Dillard's BSN one of the oldest continuously operating four-year nursing programs in the South and the oldest at any HBCU in Louisiana.

The school's deeper roots run through Flint-Goodridge Hospital. Flint-Goodridge served Black New Orleanians from 1896 to 1983 and was the first Black hospital in the South. Its training school for Black nurses, the Sarah Goodridge School of Nursing, predated the Dillard baccalaureate program by decades. When New Orleans University and Straight College merged to form Dillard in 1930, the new university took over Flint-Goodridge in 1932 and operated it for the next half century. Dillard's nursing degree program is not a direct successor to the Goodridge diploma school, but Albert Dent's leadership of both institutions and the hospital's clinical capacity shaped the new collegiate program from the start. Students adopted a four-cornered mortarboard cap representing Dignity, Integrity, Leadership, and Loyalty, the DILL motto still cited on the College of Nursing's history page.

Hurricane Katrina hit the campus hard in August 2005. The Gentilly Boulevard campus sits near the London Avenue Canal levee, which breached during the storm, and Dillard suffered some of the most extensive flood damage of any New Orleans university. Administrators relocated to Atlanta and worked to keep senior nursing students on a path to graduation. Students returned to campus in September 2006. The Professional Schools Building, which now houses the College of Nursing along with Business, Public Health, and STEM, was dedicated in 2010 as part of the post-Katrina rebuild.

The second hard chapter came a decade later. After NCLEX-RN passage rates dropped, Dillard voluntarily paused new pre-licensure admissions for the 2017 to 2018 academic year and entered a self-imposed restructuring under Dean Sharon Hutchinson. The program rewrote course sequencing, raised admissions thresholds, and rebuilt the curriculum around current best practices. The Louisiana State Board of Nursing granted initial approval to the restructured program in February 2018 and full approval in December 2021. The 2021 graduating cohort posted a 100% first-time NCLEX-RN pass rate.

Performance has since slipped again. According to Louisiana State Board of Nursing reporting, Dillard's first-time NCLEX-RN pass rate was 73.33% for the 2024 calendar year and 76.92% (20 of 26) for 2025. Louisiana statute (LAC 46:XLVII.3535.B) sets an 80% annual first-time pass rate as the threshold for continued full approval. The Board issued a first-time letter of concern after the 2024 number, and the 2025 annual report agenda placed the program up for probation action. ACEN accreditation status remained Accredited with no stipulations after its April 2026 action, following a September 2025 site visit, with the next visit scheduled for Fall 2033. Prospective students should weigh the recent NCLEX trend against the program's accreditation, cohort support, and clinical placement structure, and ask current students directly about NCLEX prep resources.

The BSN runs three entry tracks: Generic BSN for traditional first-year and qualifying transfer students, LPN-to-BSN for licensed practical nurses, and RN-to-BSN for working registered nurses. The undergraduate degree is 120 semester hours, including a 61-hour nursing core, 21 to 25 hours of science and behavioral cognates (anatomy and physiology, microbiology, chemistry, statistics, human development, psychology, sociology), and the university's general education core. The Academic Catalog requires a science cumulative GPA of at least 2.7, a HESI A2 score of 77% or higher in specified components, current Healthcare Provider CPR, complete immunization records, and health insurance for clinical placement. Application deadline to the School of Nursing is March 1 of the intended entry year. Dillard added an MSN with SACSCOC approval for fall 2023, becoming the first nursing program in Louisiana to offer a minor in healthcare advocacy.

Clinicals run through New Orleans hospital systems. University Medical Center New Orleans, the LCMC Health academic medical center on Tulane Avenue, lists Dillard among its nursing and allied health affiliations. The College references broader expansion of clinical affiliates under recent leadership but does not publish a full partner roster. The Dillard University Nursing Advisory Council, founded in 2014, links current students to alumni and agency stakeholders.

Cost matters for nursing students choosing a private HBCU. Dillard's 2025 to 2026 tuition is $10,059 per semester for full-time daytime undergraduates, with a mandatory fee of $1,900 per semester. Room runs $6,496 to $9,151 per semester depending on occupancy. Dillard does not publish a single aggregate cost-of-attendance figure on its public tuition page; the financial aid office builds individualized budgets that include billable and non-billable expenses. As a private institution, Dillard charges the same tuition regardless of state residency. Federal data and university sources indicate roughly 95% of enrolled students receive grant or scholarship aid; verify any individual aid package directly with Dillard's One Stop.

For Black students choosing where to start a nursing career in Louisiana, Dillard offers a small-cohort BSN with deep Black nursing history, an ACEN-accredited program, and clinical exposure inside a New Orleans Level 1 trauma system. The current LSBN watch on NCLEX performance is real and worth a direct conversation with the College of Nursing before applying. Contact: nursing@dillard.edu, (504) 283-4717 or (504) 283-8822, PSB Suite 102, 2601 Gentilly Boulevard, New Orleans, LA 70122.