I just heard about this, and thought I should post it: New nursing school at SIU Carbondale campus - KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar Bluff

The southern Illinois nursing force will soon get a boost thanks to a new four-year program at Southern Illinois University.

This fall, 40 students will start their first year at SIUE School of Nursing at Carbondale.

On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin announced SIU would receive thousands of federal dollars to start the program. For one Energy, Illinois woman, that may help her follow a dream.

"This is my microbiology notebook," Pre-Nursing student Barbara Close said.

Inside her notebook, Close journals experiments she did for her microbiology class. It's one of many classes Close must take to get into nursing school. However, these days Close is concerned about more than just getting good grades.

"We're all just on pins and needles, just waiting to see who go into the program," Close said.

The program is the new SIUE School of Nursing at Carbondale.

"I can't commute back and forth to Edwardsville. I have two teenagers. I'm not a traditional student," Close said.

On Wednesday Close and some other hopeful nursing students meet with U.S. Senator **** Durbin at the SIUC Student Health Center. It is also the future home of the new nursing school.

"It's going to make certain that health care that we need in down state Illinois, particularly in southern Illinois is going to be there for people in their towns, in their hospitals, and in their cities," Senator Durbin said.

Senator Durbin secured half a million federal dollars to help start the nursing program in Carbondale. He says the country already faces a nursing shortage and health care reform will increase the need for those in the nursing profession.

However, until now, SIUE School of Nursing Dean Marcia Maurer said there has been no place for students to get four-year nursing degree in southern Illinois.

"Preparing nurses with a baccalaureate degree does give them more opportunities in terms of moving on and doing other things," Maurer said.

That's what Close plans to do, but first she must be accepted into School of Nursing at Carbondale.

"We just have our head down, just trying to make it through and see if we make the cut," Close said.

Acceptance letters to the School of Nursing at Carbondale go out the middle of this month. While school will be in Carbondale, it will be administered from the Edwardsville campus.