July 2014

COMMUNITIES: EDUCATION
New Dual Major Blends Engineering and Nursing

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING DIRECTOR JOHN VIATOR WORKS ON A SYSTEM THAT USES A NANOSECOND PULSED LASER TO DETECT CANCER CELLS IN A BLOOD SAMPLE.

This fall, a Pennsylvania university will premiere a first-of-its-kind program that will not only help students learn to innovate in the health-care arena, but also provide opportunities for practical application.

Duquesne University, a Catholic liberal arts school in Pittsburgh, has developed a new five-year dual major in biomedical engineering and nursing. The major coincides with the school’s new engineering program—of which biomedical engineering is the first step, due partly to the demand for these engineers.

According to John Viator, biomedical engineering director and professor at Duquesne, a major obstacle for engineers in the field is a lack of clinical experience. They can partner with medical professionals, but graduates with dual majors could help ensure that an engineering project is clinically relevant.

The first two years of the program will focus on a traditional preengineering curriculum. The third year will begin to introduce a few nursing courses, increasing in the fourth year. The fifth year will include the engineering capstone project, incorporating students’ significant nursing experience in the classroom and clinic. For instance, a student could design sensors and software to predict falls for elders.

Viator says it’s hard to foresee what kind of jobs graduates will pursue. While they could enter one field or the other, that’s probably not the most efficient scenario since there are existing pathways for that. “I think we will see a lot of brand new situations,” he says.

For instance, a startup CEO could hire one person to both develop technology to solve a problem and test it clinically, reducing the cost of getting a solution off the ground.

The school doesn’t know yet how strong student interest will be, but Viator points out that students will benefit from gaining an education in two very high demand fields.

The program is more than just engineering and nursing, the director continues, more than the sum of its parts. The school is creating new kind of graduates, he says, who can innovate in a brand new way. “Nurse engineers will go out and do things that are hard to anticipate, but we know these people will make life better, improve human health, and will do it from a unique perspective.”