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Drake University creates accelerated nursing degree to launch in fall • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
['Brooklyn Draisey', 'More From Author', '- February']
Date: 2024-02-29
Drake University has created a new Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program in order to provide a flexible education to health care students hoping to complete their education on campus and meet workforce needs.
Mary Owens, recently hired by Drake University as the college’s nursing program director, will head the accelerated degree. She said the university developed this program in the hopes of addressing needs in the higher education sector for more slots for nursing students.
More than 76,000 qualified applicants in the U.S. were not admitted to nursing programs in 2021 because they were full, according to a Drake news release citing the Academy of Colleges of Nursing. Nursing practitioner jobs are also predicted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to grow by 38% from 2022-2032.
“We … know that there’s a critical need for nurses,” Owens said. “It fills the needs of the students and the needs of the workforce.”
Currently, Drake University offers two 3+1 degree programs in partnership with Mercy College of Health Sciences and Allen College for people hoping to earn nursing degrees. Students study for three years at Drake University to earn a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences before transferring to one of the partner schools in order to complete their nursing degree.
Implementing this program will allow Drake to retain students that would otherwise go to a different university to finish their schooling. Between 10-15 students participate in the current 3+1 nursing program, Owens said, but the university hopes that by keeping students on campus for their last year, the new program will bring in more applicants. Two new faculty members will be hired for the new degree program.
Owens said the accelerated program is also good for people with other degrees, like health and human physiology or kinesiology, who want to try out an area in clinical sciences but couldn’t with the current degree program.
Students who want to pivot their sophomore or junior year to nursing will have an easier time doing so as well, as long as they are meeting prerequisites from clinical science, pharmacy and other courses.
“That’s another reason why the accelerated program works well, because you don’t have to commit per se,” Owens said.
Broadlawns medical center has partnered with Drake University to serve as the primary site for the program, which will launch in the fall. The accelerated degree will take place over the fall, spring and summer semesters. The center will also appoint one faculty member to oversee the rotations.
Chief Nursing Officer Lance Schmitt said the center has history working with Drake and other educational institutions to give clinical experience to future health care professionals, a practice that helps them know what it will really be like and decide if it is the right path for them.
“We are very excited to have this partnership and the opportunity to have additional students come through our walls,” Schmitt said.
Schmitt said he’s heard from students who have gone through Drake University’s current program, including his own daughter, that there can be a transition period and almost disconnect that comes with changing schools for the last year of their education. Offering the stability of staying at the university all four years will be a draw for those who want to stay connected with their professors and Drake programs.
“I have a number of students who have gone through that program and have expressed the thought of how this program will be so much more of an improvement,” Schmitt said. “Not that the current program is bad, but it will lend itself to some consistency.”
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