Nurse Education
American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s report (April 2019) on 2018-2019 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing
”U.S. nursing schools turned away 75,029 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2018. This was due to an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors, and budget constraints. Most nursing schools responding to the survey pointed to faculty shortages as a reason for not accepting all qualified applicants into baccalaureate programs.”
Our challenge at CCMH
Comanche County Memorial Hospital’s current acute care licensed nurse vacancy rate runs at approximately 23%! We have had to back-fill our open nursing spots with contract staff (travelers) to meet the needs of our community. It’s very expensive. We find the contract staff do not have loyalty to the hospital. With their turn-over every 13 weeks, it is hard to maintain quality initiatives and standards with new contract nurse replacement cycles.
Our effort to meet the need for nursing staff
Most recently we have formed a strategic partnership with Oklahoma City University (OKCU), Kramer School of Nursing. They created a satellite site for a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in Duncan, OK three years ago. Because Duncan, OK is only approximately 30 miles from Comanche County Memorial Hospital (CCMH) nursing clinicals occur at CCMH. Cameron University (CU) is a public university across the street from CCMH. A strategic relationship with CU’s Humanities Department allows students to start their Junior Year at Kramer School of Nursing in Duncan to ultimately earn a BSN through OKCU! Comanche County Memorial Hospital (CCMH) is offering 20 full-two year scholarships to local students who qualify for the OKCU Kramer Nursing School admission criteria and will agree to work for CCMH for three years after graduation! This will allow 20 local Oklahoma students to obtain their BSN in two years in exchange for agreeing to work for CCMH!