Overview
The Practical Nursing diploma is a pre-licensure program offered by Beal University, a private university based in Bangor, Maine. It is advertised as completable in approximately 10 months and is delivered in a hybrid format combining online study with on-campus classes and year-round clinical rotations, with day, evening and online options at the Bangor location.
Beal describes practical nurses as healthcare professionals who provide basic medical care under the supervision of registered nurses or doctors, particularly in nursing homes, home health environments and rehabilitation centres, and states that the program prepares graduates for entry into nursing practice using clinical judgment, quality improvement, informatics, teamwork and collaboration.
Accreditation
Beal states that its Practical/Vocational Nursing program holds pre-accreditation status from the National League for Nursing Commission for Nursing Education Accreditation, 2600 Virginia Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037. The university explicitly notes that holding pre-accreditation status does not guarantee that initial accreditation by NLN CNEA will be received. This differs from the status of Beal's Associate Degree in Nursing, which the university reports as holding initial accreditation. Accreditation status should be confirmed directly with NLN CNEA.
Curriculum
Beal lists the following courses as comprising the program:
- Pharmacology and the Nursing Process
- Introduction to Practical Nursing
- Lifespan Considerations in Practical Nursing
- Transition to Practice – PN
- Lifespan Developmental
- Human Anatomy and Physiology of the Structural Systems
- Human Anatomy and Physiology of the Organ Systems
Program outcomes
Beal states that on completion students will have the opportunity to provide safe, competent, holistic, patient-centred and culturally appropriate care to individuals and communities across settings; incorporate quality improvement activities based on evidence-based clinical judgment within the practical nurse's scope of practice; participate in collaboration and teamwork with the interprofessional team, the patient and the family across the lifespan; and advocate for the practical nurse's role within the healthcare system, with emphasis on managing long-term and chronic care for underserved and vulnerable populations.
Licensure
Beal states that the program allows graduates to sit the National Council Licensure Examination for Practical Nurses (NCLEX-PN) and to apply for state licensure as a practical nurse in Maine. Licensure requirements in other states are set by their own boards of nursing and are not addressed here.
Delivery and structure
The program is offered in a hybrid online and on-campus format, and Beal states that the first two months can be completed online. Clinical rotations take place year-round in settings including hospitals, clinics and long-term care facilities. Beal operates a modular academic calendar it markets as the Modular System, under which classes are completed in about half the time of a conventional semester.
The published page also carries a note stating that the Associate Degree in Nursing is available only as a full-time program; that note refers to a different Beal program and its applicability to this diploma is not established by the source.
Career context
Beal states that practical nurses are needed at all hours, allowing varied shift patterns, and lists nursing homes and assisted living facilities, hospitals, physicians' offices, home health care facilities and community care facilities among the settings graduates may work in. The page cites a Bureau of Labor Statistics projection of 8% growth in nursing employment between 2023 and 2033.
Source and evidence
This article summarizes the program description published by Beal University on its own website, captured on 26 August 2026. As a self-published institutional source it supports uncontroversial facts about the institution's own offering — course titles, stated duration, delivery mode, stated accreditation and stated outcomes — but does not independently verify claims about employment prospects, licensure outcomes or program quality, including the university's description of itself as one of the best nursing schools in Maine, which is a promotional claim rather than an established fact. The stated completion time carries an asterisk in the source material, and the labour-market projection is attributed by Beal to a third-party government source rather than established here.