Lewis and Clark CC nursing program flourishes

[cougarnurse]

Nice article! http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/nur...-students.html

In just 10 years' time, Lewis and Clark Community College's registered nursing program has evolved from being on probation to its graduates achieving exemplary certification test scores.

LCCC also opened the first nurse-managed clinic open to the public on a community college campus in the United States in 2007. Proponents predict such centers will be an important health-care delivery vehicle in the future throughout the country. LCCC's center began serving the general public exactly one year ago, on Aug. 15, 2009.

The school, which is earning a reputation as having a top-notch nursing program, now turns away dozens of applicants each semester because of space limitations and tightened enrollment criteria.

It also is reaping awards and recognition.

"It was on probation when I took it over in 2000," said Donna Meyer, MSN/RN, dean of LCCC Health Sciences and project manager of the Nurse Managed Center and the mobile health unit. "I had the support of the administration" to make the changes to drastically turn around the registered nurse program.

Keeping the program up-to-date and its standards high requires efforts on several fronts.

"Every May, the faculty sits down and looks at admissions, our philosophy, outcomes and NCLEX (National Council of State Boards of Nursing) scores," she said. "There are 41 criteria we address."

This past school year, there were 282 students in the associate degree in nursing (registered nurse) program, more than three times the 91 students in 2000. LCCC was able to expand admissions with the opening of the Daisy and Roger P. Templin Nursing Building in 2007.

"We average, each semester, 230 to 250 applications, but we only accept 78 each August and January," Meyer said. "We have a selective admissions process. We look at their grade-point average and admission test scores. We used to only look at test scores, but some students don't always test well or carry a (good) GPA."

The school attracts applicants in a range of ages.

"The oldest was 63 since I've been here; a lot of them are in their 40s and 50s," Meyer said.

Last fall, the National League for Nursing Accreditation Commission gave the program the maximum eight years of accreditation.

"A lot of schools don't get that," Meyer said.

The commission first accredited the program in January 1977, seven years after the program started.
Accreditation is based on six standards: mission and administrative capacity; faculty and staff; students, curriculum, resources and outcome in a 200-plus page evaluation. Examiners spent three days on campus last October doing the evaluation.

Student standardized test scores also attest to the depth and breadth of the program.

"We are always above the national and state averages," Meyer said about the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCLEX) exam that registered nurse candidates must take for certification. "One real advantage here is we have very consistent, excellent faculty in the program. They are committed to these students. I have to give the faculty credit for the success of these students."

Meyer said students had a 95 percent pass rate for the first quarter of 2010, up from total yearly rates of 87, 93, 85, 90 and 92 percent in 2009 backward to 2005, respectively.

The NCLEX test also changes to keep up with shifts in the health-care field.

The test was changed in 2007, then most recently last April, and may affect graduates' test scores as it may not parallel their curricula.

"Frequently, across the nation, the pass rates go down," Meyer said.

With the changes, she said the nursing school faculty reviews its curriculum annually to ensure it correlates with the NCLEX test plan. One example is that LCCC more and more is emphasizing community nursing experiences.

"Our program is good; it is an innovative program, not a stagnant program," Meyer said. "Once the faculty come, they don't leave."

She said consistency of faculty members allows for better development of curriculum, which is being changed.

Meyer has been affiliated with the program for 28 years.

Meyer, of Edwardsville, previously worked full time as a pediatric nurse for six years at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

"I'm first a nurse," she said. "Nursing is a passion of mine."

The faculty is in the process of rewriting the entire nursing curriculum at the college, a long process that the Illinois Community College Board must approve. LCCC probably will not implement the new curriculum until fall 2011 or later, she said.

What also contributes to students doing well on the NCLEX test is after every course, they had to take the standardized Health Education System Inc. (HESI) exams - now called Evolve Reach - that not every nursing school requires.

Students also must take an exit exam and reach a benchmark score of 900 in order to graduate from the LCCC program.

The results of the HESI/Evolve Reach tests revealed students' weak areas, if any, that they need to improve before taking the exit exam or NCLEX. To assist the students, in January the school hired learning specialist Margaret Bridgewater, a registered nurse.

"If students make less than an 80 on a test, they sit with the learning specialist to find out why they didn't understand the material," Meyer said. A student must average 80 percent to pass a course.

LCCC also is one of the few - if not the only - community colleges to offer a health assessment course. The course helps students working in the Nurse Managed Center, mobile health unit, at their eventual jobs and to skip the class if they later pursue a bachelor's degree.

[cougarnurse]

The college does not track graduates to determine how many find nursing jobs within a given time period after leaving the school. Although jobs were plentiful several years ago, within the past two years, new registered nurses have had fewer options. They may not be able to choose work shifts or specialty areas or facility as much as in previous years, Meyer said.

"Our employment rate had been 100 percent," she said. "It had been really good."

Positions still exist, though, particularly in St. Louis, with its more numerous medical facilities.

"People looking for nursing positions are going to be able to find a job that pays a good salary," Meyer said. "There is always going to be a demand, and there still are a lot of opportunities.

"These economic times have affected nursing. We had nurses going to retire; now they are not - perhaps their spouse lost their job," she said. "Four years ago, our graduates could pick and choose their job. Now they may not get the job they wanted. Maybe they wanted to work in obstetrics; now they might have to work nights in medical-surgical. Some of the younger nurses are working as traveling nurses where they work for six or eight weeks."

Registered nurse Adam Mayhew, of Edwardsville, graduated from the program in May 2006 after working six years as an Alton firefighter and paramedic, during which time he also attended nursing classes. He works at the Nurse Managed Center and continues his education at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He plans to graduate with a bachelor of science degree in nursing next May.

Mayhew, 36, had praise for LCCC's nursing program.

"It prepared me well. The education was good for real-work experiences," he said. "A lot of them (students) don't get it" at other institutions.

"It prepared me for the nursing environment; I can't say enough about it," Mayhew said. "The faculty did a great job combining the lecture and clinical aspects of the nursing program. As a result of my education, I felt I was prepared for the real world of nursing that can be overwhelming for many new graduates."

A somewhat dated 2007 Nursing Workforce Survey by National Research Corp. of Lincoln, Neb., showed 56 percent of registered nurses in Clinton, Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties were working in hospitals. A much smaller percentage, 8 percent, were working in physicians' offices or clinics; 5.1 percent in schools; 5.5 percent in nursing homes; 2.5 percent in home health jobs; with the rest spread about in assisted living facilities, dialysis centers, hospices or as occupational health nurses, among others.

The survey, conducted for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, says the majority of those with primary employment as registered nurses in the survey fell into the following salary ranges in 2007: $25,000-$34,999, 13.8 percent; $35,000-$44,999, 15.4 percent; $45,000-$54,999, 22.7 percent; $55,000-$64,999, 16.2 percent; $65,000-$84,999, 15.4 percent. Small percentages of respondents reported salaries either less or more than the above amounts.