Augusta Technical College to offer nursing program

Augusta Technical College to offer nursing program; Tom Corwin The Augusta Chronicle, Ga. McClatchy - Tribune Business News 04-02-2008 Augusta Technical College to offer nursing program Byline: Tom Corwin The Augusta Chronicle, Ga. Type:Financial Apr. 2--With the state facing an even greater shortage of nurses in the future, Augusta Technical College is preparing to pitch in. The school was recently granted permission by the Georgia Board of Nursing to create an associate degree in nursing program, which won't begin until 2010. It is part of an informal effort by nursing programs at area schools to coordinate efforts to ensure that more nurses are being produced at all levels. Augusta Tech has wanted a nursing program for years. But just in the past year it completed a study showing not only a need but also that the school will be able to count on all of the local hospitals as clinical teaching sites, President Terry Elam said. "The big thing was could we supply the clinical sites," he said. University Hospital was a key piece of that, Mr. Elam said. The school is aiming for 25 students a class in the two-year program, which would allow them to become registered nurses, he said. Many of those will go on to a four-year program, either at Medical College of Georgia or perhaps Augusta State University, which nursing leaders said is hoping to convert its two-year program into a four- year baccalaureate program. In addition, MCG is pushing for more graduate education of nurses. Its new Clinical Nurse Leader program allows those with other undergraduate degrees to get a master's degree in nursing. "We did establish our philosophy that we see different roles for the different institutions in this area, but there will be overlapping also," said Lucy Marion, the dean of the MCG School of Nursing. The school will continue its undergraduate baccalaureate program but supports Augusta State getting one "because we support the highest-educated nurse to meet the needs of this very complex health society," she said. Overall, the University System of Georgia plans to increase nursing graduates from 1,900 last year to 2,700 by 2010. That means the state would be producing more than 3,000 new nurses a year. "That's still not enough," Dr. Marion said. The Georgia Hospital Association found in 2006 that 59 percent of the nurses in the state were over age 40 and 27 percent were older than 50 . That means the state will need at least 8,000 more nurses by 2012, according to the Nursing Education Task of the University System of Georgia. That's why University is supporting all of these efforts, said Marilyn Bowcutt, the vice president for patient care services. "We know that we have to start getting more people in the pipeline in order to replace the retiring nurses, for the future," she said. Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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More nurses will be needed

EDITORIAL: More nurses will be needed
Byline: The Wilson Daily Times, N.C.
Type: Editorial

Dec. 7--Wilson Community College and Wilson Medical Center are looking ahead as they convert a vacant building into a high-tech learning laboratory for nursing students. With $450,000 from the Golden LEAF Foundation, the college and hospital will turn the former Wilson-Greene Mental Health Center on the hospital campus into a lab for nursing students. State-of-the-art mannequins will simulate patient symptoms, reactions and behaviors, giving nursing students safe and realistic opportunities to practice their skills.

The Golden LEAF funds will be used to purchase seven high-tech mannequins and three more mannequins that are not quite as sophisticated. The former Mental Health Center will be remodeled as a hospital ward with patient rooms, a nursing station and a simulated environment for students. Cameras will record learning sessions so that procedures can be reviewed and critiqued.

The aim of this laboratory and other efforts to encourage nursing students is the national shortage of registered nurses. Nurses have been in short supply for several years with crises arising periodically in various locations.

There are many reasons for the nursing shortage, which shows little sign of disappearing:

--A study earlier this year estimates that the nation's nursing shortage will increase to 340,000 by 2020.

--A 2006 study found that 55 percent of registered nurses, including a majority of nurse managers, intend to retire between 2011 and 2020.

--Although employment of registered nurses in hospitals increased by 185,000 between 2001 and 2004, more than 80 percent of physicians and nurses thought their hospitals told a poll they thought there was a nursing shortage where they worked.

--Nurses are older as fewer young people enter the profession. In March 2004, the average registered nurse was 46.8 years old, and only 8 percent of the nursing population was under 30.

--Nurses are essential to health care. They are the first line of contact with patients and are expected to handle increasingly sophisticated and complicated procedures. Without an adequate supply of good nurses, hospitals and other medical facilities cannot function.

The effort by Wilson Medical Center and Wilson Community College should help ease the nursing shortage by improving training of student nurses. Golden LEAF or another philanthropy might also consider scholarships for nurses who will agree to work in underserved rural areas, where recruiting medical professionals can be difficult.

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Training Nurses

Training nurses

Times of London 03-07-2008

Training nurses
Edition: Final 1
Section: Features
Type: Letter

Sir, I write in support of Lord Mancroft's comments on his nursing care while in hospital (report, March 1). I was the head of a large nurse training school until I retired in 1989 and had the misfortune to be admitted for nearly a month to a medical ward. I could not believe the poor personal care I received. It was so bad that after a week I made a formal complaint, and things improved somewhat. When discharged I made a further formal complaint and received an apology.

However, this did not address the root cause - the absence of qualified nurses giving personal care, and the total absence of senior nurses with management titles such as "quality control" in clinical areas. In addition, trainee nurses are placed on wards and left to work with nursing assistants with no one teaching them the art of nursing. Nursing is a practice-based discipline and cannot be taught in institutes of higher education by teachers who never go near clinical areas, and haven't for years.
What is required is an inquiry by the Department of Health and the statutory body with input from the Royal College of Nursing into the current model of nurse management of patient care in hospital and a suitable replacement.

B.E. Hume
Formby, Liverpool
Keywords: Letter
Copyright (c) Times Newspapers Limited 2008

New nurses may lack hands-on skills

New nurses may lack hands-on skills; No training program can guarantee students encounter every situation, college official says; ANNE KELLY RECORD STAFF
Kitchener Waterloo Record 03-08-2008

New nurses may lack hands-on skills; No training program can guarantee students encounter every situation, college official says
Byline: ANNE KELLY RECORD STAFF
Edition: Final
Section: FRONT

As a newly graduated RN three years ago, Crystal McCallum took a part-time job providing in-home nursing care to a medically unstable newborn.

The baby was premature and not expected to live. It had birth defects and a feeding tube running from its nose to its stomach. The tube would frequently become blocked or dislodged.
An overwhelmed McCallum found herself in tears after many shifts. The company she was working for had not provided her with any training.

"They just threw me right in. That's where more intense experience in school would have been a benefit."

McCallum, who provides in-home nursing to clients in Listowel, Brussels and the surrounding area, now works full-time for Care Partners, which she said provides excellent orientation and training.

McCallum is a member of The Nursing Shortage and You, a new advocacy group of nurses in Waterloo Region and surrounding counties.

Their concerns include the clinical preparedness of today's university trained nurses. Some say skills of new graduates were better under the former diploma programs.

She said the theoretical training at the University of Windsor was outstanding, but more "hands-on" experience would have been beneficial.

"I have a problem with what's in the curriculum," said advocacy group member Ferne Schwartzentruber, a retired nurse who has worked in home care, long-term care and hospitals. "Just get back to the basics."

Beatrice Mudge, chief nursing executive at Cambridge Memorial Hospital, said today's new nurses are educationally well-prepared, especially in assessing patients.

But Lois Gaspar, chair of nursing programs at Conestoga College, which runs a degree program for nurses, says that the hours of clinical training are about the same as in the former diploma program, though they are distributed differently.

Gaspar said no training program can guarantee all students will encounter patients needing every kind of skill.

"That's not much different than when I was a nursing student," she said.

With patients sicker and workloads heavier today, new nurses need a chance to become workload ready, said Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario.

A number of new graduates have left nursing in the past five years, added Vicki McKenna, first vice-president of the Ontario Nurses Associ-ation.

"They left because they don't have the skills. They didn't have the support they needed in their workplace to continue working."

McCallum said it took about a year for her to feel confident in her work, but she loves her job providing community care and is willing to work for a few dollars an hour less than her hospital counterparts for a flexible schedule and close relationships with clients.

But if the wage gap of nearly $3 to $5 an hour between community and long-term care nurses and hospital nurses isn't closed, nurses will migrate to hospitals, she predicted.

The home care clients and nursing home residents of today require complex care that would have kept them in hospital just a few years ago.

Some new nurses have told McKenna that with student loans of $40,000 they must go where the compensation they receive is best.

David Murray, executive director of the Waterloo-Wellington Community Care Access Centre, said there are significant nurse shortages in community care.

But he expects competition from other sectors will force wages "to some equilibrium."

Health Minister George Smitherman said that the gap is closing annually and extra measures are not planned.

In the meantime, Ferne Schwartzentruber, a retired registered nurse who has worked in all sectors, said some smaller rural nursing homes can't always fulfil their obligation to have an RN on site overnight because of short-staffing. That poses a risk to residents safety, she said.

akelly@therecord.com

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