(06/20/19) - The nursing profession is facing serious shortages nationwide.
Now, two mid-Michigan schools are switching things up, hoping to graduate more nursing students.
In 2010, the National Academy of Medicine set a nationwide goal: increase the proportion of nurses with a bachelor's degree from 50 to 80 percent by 2020.
"There have been studies have been done that show it's an advantage having nurses with Bachelors Degrees. They understand evidence-based practice, and they use that in their practice setting, so it can improve patient safety and so forth," Karen Brown-Fackler said. Brown-Fackler is the Department Chair for SVSU's Department of Nursing.
With less then a year to go to hit that number, two mid-Michigan universities are making it easier for nursing students.
Central Michigan University will launch a one-year online nursing degree this fall. At SVSU, they surveyed all of their current RN to BSN students.
"One of their major problems was they are working people. They are full-time. They have families, and even if they would like to sit face to face with their instructor and have a discussion, they don't have time to do that or they live far distances. Online courses were very important in a student being able to go back to school, so we changed our program to all online," Brown-Fackler said.
Mindy Fabbro is an assistant professor of nursing. She also graduated from SVSU in 2014. She says a change like this will help nurses, especially with their personal lives.
"When I was taking the Health Assessment course, I actually had a family emergency in Florida, and it was a six-period of time that I had to fly back every Tuesday night, so I could go to class on Wednesday, and then I would fly back out either Wednesday night or Thursday morning, so I could go back to Florida. This makes it a lot easier for people to be flexible if they do have some crisis in their family," Fabbro said.
In the online course, each student will be required to post questions and respond to two other students.
They can also complete their degree at their own pace.
The university will also start making those changes coming this fall 2019.