DENISON, Texas -- Nursing will be the first bachelors degree program offered at Grayson College.

"We have hundreds of emails already of perspective students, so we're really excited," said nursing program director Jamie McKinney.

The two-year community college announced Thursday that the new program would be available for nursing students. But registered nurses without a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree are also eligible to come back for the extra two years to receive their degree, too.

"One of the big pushes is to have BSNs in our hospitals," explained Kristy Calloway, who is coordinating the RN to BSN program. "Our counties in this area are averaging around 30 to 35 percent; the push is to have 80 percent, so I think this will help fill a huge gap."

Nursing students start out with hands-on experience, then bridge into the BSN program.

The leaders of the Grayson College Health Sciences department have been working since 2015 to get this program started. 

"We've had a tremendous amount of interest from nurses in the community since we first started this journey of getting all of the approvals," McKinney said.

Students are required to get their RN license before continuing on to the next two years and with a "C" grade or higher in all classes.

"To make sure they're ready to go and they're actually eligible for the program," said Health Sciences advisor Becki Rathfon. "A lot of them don't understand it's a bridge program, so they're just thinking they can go straight through to the BSN programs."

The first day of classes for the Grayson College BSN program is August 12.