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Trinity program: Students can now get nursing degrees in 15 months

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By Sheena Dooley | Wednesday, May 7, 2008 11:48 PM CDT | () comments

Nursing students will be able to earn their degree in half the time as a result of Trinity College of Nursing’s efforts to offset a nursing shortage.

Leaders at the college announced Wednesday the creation of an accelerated bachelor of science in nursing degree that allows students to complete the program in 15 months, as opposed to three years. It is the first of its kind in the Quad-City region, officials said.

“The nursing shortage is very real,” said Carol Dwyer, president of Trinity College of Nursing and Health Sciences. “We are approaching this from a number of different angles. If we don’t have a plan in place to address the shortage, our community will be in trouble.”

National figures show there will be a shortage of 400,000 nurses in the next 12 years. In some areas of the country, that lack of nurses has already affected health care providers, making it hard to fill vacant positions. The Quad-Cities, however, has been lucky.

Dwyer said Trinity’s vacancy rate for nursing positions is

5 percent to 7 percent, compared to a national average of 7 percent to 14 percent. However, it takes Trinity 45 to 90 days to recruit qualified candidates. Numbers in both areas are expected to increase as more baby boomers retire and the need for health care increases, she said.

The new accelerated bachelor degree is expected to help combat the looming shortage, officials said. This summer, the college will enroll the first 10 students into the program. Dwyer said she hopes to see the program double its enrollment in the next year.

“People want to get into nursing but don’t want to start over at square one,” said Leanne

Hullett, dean of the college.

Currently, Trinity’s school offers a two-year associate in nursing degree. Once students complete that training, they can enroll in a bachelor of science in nursing completion program, which takes about two years to finish.

The accelerated program allows students who hold a bachelor’s degree in any subject area and have completed the required science classes to skip the two-year associate degree program and immediately start working on the bachelor’s degree.

Students in the accelerated program take the same 58 credit hours that the other bachelor’s program requires. However, they carry a larger course load each semester.

“This allows us (students) to get straight into the hands-on learning,” said Cambria Cook, who is among those enrolled in the new program this summer. “I would still go into nursing if this program hadn’t been created, but this accelerated option is nice. The location worked itself out.”

Sheena Dooley can be contacted at (563) 383-2363 or sdooley@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.