Another FYI: FayObserver.com - State board OKs Methodist nursing program

The state Board of Nursing on Friday cleared the way for Methodist University to start a four-year nursing program.

The 14-member board voted unanimously to grant the bachelor's degree program initial approval, the first step in the approval process. The program will be reviewed by the board again in 2014, after the first class graduates, to determine whether the program will be granted full approval status.

Joyce Roth, who evaluates nursing programs for the board, said another investigator who conducted a site visit could find nothing wrong with Methodist's plan.

"All of the resources are in place, except the building," Roth said.
Jane Weeks Gardiner, Methodist's associate vice president for academic affairs, attended the meeting with Mary Hall, the director of nursing.

Gardiner softly congratulated Hall with a "Good job" after the vote was taken.

The women said Methodist will accept its first class of pre-nursing students in the fall. In the spring of their sophomore year, students who are interested in nursing must apply and be accepted into the upper-division nursing program, which begins their junior year.

In order to be considered, students must have at least a 2.8 GPA and score a C or better in certain science classes.

High school students and Methodist freshmen with at least a 3.1 GPA who commit to the nursing program can earn early admittance to the upper-division program through the admissions preference program. Those students must also have a combined SAT score of 1,000 on the verbal and math tests.

The initial approval allows Methodist to accept 30 students a year into the upper-division nursing program. Application documents sent to the board indicate Methodist will likely take on 25 juniors in fall 2012. Those documents project enrollment will grow to 60 students a year in the eighth year of the program. Hall acknowledged that Methodist may return to the state Board of Nursing in a few years to ask for an increase in enrollment.

In the late 1980s, Methodist officials closed the university's first nursing program, 2 1/2years after it opened, because of lack of interest. That program focused on providing training for registered nurses to obtain their bachelor's degree, Gardiner said. She stressed that the new program is very different from the previous one.

"We are very confident we are going to have interest (in this program)," Gardiner said. "It is a very different program."

Students will have access to a state-of-the-art simulator, which they will use to learn how to handle a natural or environmental disaster, Hall said.

As part of a required course on industrial hygiene, students will learn about OSHA standards, and they will receive a certificate from FEMA after passing the course, according to the application.

Hall came up with the idea to add that and a leadership course to the program, utilizing two of Methodist's strengths, she said.

"We will have graduates who can handle disasters," Hall said.

As part of the plan to start a nursing program, Methodist will be opening a nursing building by fall 2012, Gardiner said. University officials are searching for an architect, Gardiner said.

She did not have many details about the building. The application indicates it will be 10,000 square feet, and it could be located along Ramsey Street, near the physician assistants' building or near undergraduate buildings. The building will house a locker room, simulation laboratory, eight to 10 offices, a dining area and a 250-person auditorium.

In other business, the board voted to upgrade the status of the nursing program at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke from warning to full approval. The board upgraded the college's standing because a higher percentage of students passed a national licensing exam than in years past. In 2009, 88 percent of all first-time test takers passed. About 80 percent passed in 2008 and 68 percent passed in 2007.