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For the new faculty, I am Rebecca Maddox, the director of the Nursing program. There have been quite a few changes in Nursing since faculty
left for the summer. At the end of the spring semester, Dr. Lucy Megginson was named as the Dean of Health Sciences with a start date
of June 1. Unfortunately, Lucy was made an offer by Floyd Medical Center that she could not refuse. She is currently the Director of
Clinical Education. That means that we are on a search for a Dean again. The search has been very active and we will be interviewing
and bringing candidates to campus this month. As you know, we plan to start an RN-BSN program in fall 2013. The approval process
with the Georgia Board of Nursing is proceeding as it should. In March, we were awarded Developmental Approval. At the Georgia Board
of Nursing meeting in July, our next report was accepted and we were granted Initial Approval for Implementation. That means that our
proposed curriculum has been approved by the board, that we can proceed with sending the proposed courses to our Curriculum
Committee, and we can start to advertise the program. That also means that everyone is going to
need to get up to speed with how to advise students for the RN-BSN program. First of all, only students who are already licensed RNs
are eligible for the RN-BSN program. It is not a generic BSN. A comparison of the associate degree and baccalaureate degree programs
will soon be on the www.highlands.edu/bsn website. Keep in mind that the document is in draft form until the nursing courses pass
through Curriculum Committee and are voted on by the faculty. However, the core curriculum is set. Here is where we can all help students
make wise choices in their course selections. Students who plan to attend the associate degree program and then progress to the
RN-BSN program need to concentrate on taking the core courses for the associate degree first. Working on the baccalaureate degree
core courses at the same time can lead to delays in being admitted to the associate degree program. The other thing that can happen is
that students can run over their allowed financial aid hours. Once they graduate and are working toward their baccalaureate degree, they
can receive additional financial aid. Students planning to apply for the associate degree program should start into their
biology sequence as soon as possible. Grades in the biology courses count 50% of the admission score. Delays in getting started on
the biology courses lead to students not having all of their biology courses completed at the time of the application deadlines to the
nursing program. Granted, there are some students who can handle taking both A&P II and Microbiology in the summer so that they can
be ready for the January admission, but that is quite an academic challenge and not for
everyone. The other reason I mention the biology courses is related to the core curriculum for the RN-
BSN program. Students are encouraged to take Chemistry for the associate degree program, but it is not required. Students have the option
of taking Chemistry in the place of BIOL 2190 (Nutrition) and FCCS 1100. With this in mind, students entering the RN-BSN program
can complete their required science sequence by taking the second chemistry if they chem one, or they can take BIOL 1010K if they took BIOL
2190. The Chemistry can be either the Principles of Chemistry sequence or the Survey of Chemistry
sequence. Before I finish, I need to talk a little bit about the future of the nursing program. In October
2010, the Future of Nursing report came out as a joint report of the Institute of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In the
report there are 8 recommendations to help address the issues and concerns in nursing that continue to impact the national nursing
shortage. One of the recommendations is for 80% of the nursing workforce to be baccalaureate prepared by 2020. At present,
66% of the nursing workforce in Georgia is associate degree prepared. That means that there are quite a few nurses who need to go
back to school to advance their degrees. That is where our RN-BSN program fits into the big
picture. There is a shift occurring across all of the educational institutions. The universities
are ramping up to offer additional master’s and doctoral programs in nursing. In an effort to have enough advanced practice nurses to meet
the health care needs of US citizens and to have enough nursing faculty to teach in the programs, another IOM/RWJF recommendation is to
double the number of doctoral prepared nurses by 2020. As the university focus changes to advanced degrees, the state colleges are
picking up the RN-BSN programs. You are also seeing more associate degree programs appearing in the technical college system.
We expect our RN-BSN program to grow quickly. So, where does that leave our associate degree program and all of our students who
are interested in the program. Keeping in line with our access mission, we will continue to have an associate degree program and
encourage students to progress to the RN-BSN program. However, the associate degree program will decrease in size over time. It
is important not to cause a panic amongst our students to the point that enrollment drops. Right now, we receive about 4 applications for
each student we accept in the program. Again, admission is based on admission score. There are many students who do not have and
many who will never have competitive enough scores to be accepted into the program. What is to happen to those
students? The nursing department is working with Diane Langston to help identify those students
and steer them toward advising related to other healthcare careers. Of course, those are the students who have already applied to nursing
at least once. As faculty in the core courses, if you see students who indicate they are pre-nursing students and who are not doing well,
particularly the science courses, it would help those students if you encourage them to meet with one of the professional advisors. At
a minimum, the students should be encouraged to meet with a nursing advisor. If we all help them get the advice they need, it will save them
time and money and help them obtain a degree sooner.