VGCC Plans Expansion Of Nurse Training
Everyone who reads or watches news knows there is a nationwide shortage of nurses and other healthcare professionals.
“The shortage is critical,” according to Beth Phillips, director of Nursing at Vance-Granville Community College. “The nursing population is aging; the average nurse today is 42, and they are retiring faster than schools can put out new ones.”
Changes in the nursing profession are also opening up the field for more people, Phillips said. “Nurses today have more options; they can work so many more places than the hospitals and clinics you used to find them in. Therefore, the demands on hospital nurses are greater, and more are looking to leave that arena.”
As an example of how mobile nurses are today, Phillips said: “I have been a nurse 20 years, and I’ve had three jobs. Some nurses today have that many in one year.”
The North Carolina Board of Nursing has given Vance-Granville Community College approval to increase its number of practical nursing students from 20 to 32. And the college is making plans to expand its Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) when approval is received.
Practical nursing is a one-year program, and the first 32-member class will begin in August this year. In order to justify increasing this program, the college had to satisfy the board that it had adequate classroom space, could hire additional faculty, and acquire clinical sites for the students to receive practical experience.
Hiring of new faculty for the Practical Nursing Program has begun, as well as the search for new clinical sites. “Hospitals in which to send our students for practical experience are hard to get, because university and other area community college nursing programs also need them, and there are is a limit to the clinical sites available,” Phillips said.
Currently, VGCC practical nursing students get first-hand experience at Maria Parham Hospital, Granville Medical Center, Franklin Regional Medical Center, Raleigh Community Hospital, Warren Hills Nursing Center and Rex Convalescent Care Center. Phillips is seeking other sites.
The two-year Associate Degree Nursing Program currently can take 40 new students each year for a maximum of 80 in training at one time. Phillips has plans to increase that number to 104 by adding weekend and evening classes. VGCC hopes these additional 24 nursing candidates can start classes in January 2004.
“We would have classes in the evenings, Monday through Thursday, when the nursing classroom is available,” Phillips said. There are plans to enlarge the nursing classroom from four to six beds and add a computer lab dedicated to nursing. “We would have clinical training on weekends when there would be more sites available,” Phillips said.
Evening and weekend classes should particularly appeal to people who have to work days, Phillips pointed out. “We are seeing an increase in licensed practical nurses who would like to return to school for the ADN program,” she said. “They could do it this way, as well as the stay-at-home mom whose husband could be with the children on weekends and evenings.”
VGCC officials report there are about 1,500 applicants annually for the associate degree and practical nursing, radiography and medical assisting programs. Currently, there are about 250 people who have completed the pre-requisite classes for ADN and 150 who are eligible to enter practical nursing, but the space is not available. Many applicants for nursing have bachelor’s degrees and want to retrain for healthcare fields.
VGCC President Robert A. Miller said, “The interest is there for nursing education, and we at Vance-Granville Community College are trying to explore new options and be creative in the use of our facilities and resources to respond to our communities’ needs and desires.”
