HOT SPRINGS -- CHI St. Vincent is collaborating with a community college and a university in an effort to increase the number of nurses in southwest Arkansas.
The hospital system will work with National Park College in Hot Springs and Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, providing funding to both of the public higher education institutions through August 2020, it announced Wednesday. St. Vincent has also committed to give 20 students from each institution financial aid to help them through the nursing programs.
"There is a nursing shortage in our country," said Tony Houston, president of CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs. "We know the baby boomers are aging, and so actually is our nursing workforce."
The Hot Springs hospital has about 70 openings in its 360 nursing positions, he said, though it is filling the void with traveling nurses and overtime. The shortage will worsen by 2024, especially in Arkansas, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"And so we know the problem is acute here, and by 2030, the estimates are that 26 percent of Arkansans will be aged 60 or older," Houston said. "So, we are going to be proactive. ... We see it more as an opportunity to be innovative and partner with our two leading institutions here in southwest Arkansas."
The shortage is exacerbated by school enrollment not outpacing the demand, which is in part because there aren't enough nurse educators, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
The public-private partnership is the second of its kind announced this year. In May, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock said it created an accelerated 18-month program that would enroll 40 nursing students a year and end with employment at St. Vincent.
Under the partnership announced Wednesday, St. Vincent will give $1 million over three years, split evenly between National Park College and Henderson State University. The hospital system is adding another $200,000 per year in financial aid packages to both schools.
The money for students comes with strings: Students who receive the financial aid must work at the hospital system for at least two years or else the money will turn into a loan, according to the agreements. HSU administrators said they expect to start the scholarships this spring, while National Park College officials will start it next fall, presidents of each school said.
For National Park College, the funds will help buy updated software and equipment for a clinical simulation laboratory, said college President John Hogan. The college graduates about 60 registered nurses a year and is hoping to double that, he said, adding that the clinical capacity would be a challenge on which St. Vincent is committed.
"The most difficult areas for clinical are our specialty areas, so that's obstetrics and pediatrics and mental health," said Janice Ivers, the college's dean of nursing, "and so our goal is to be able to increase the ability to give students similar clinical experiences with simulation, so that every student experiences some of those common patients."
The funds have allowed HSU to add two new faculty members and start an online program to help registered nurses earn bachelor of science degrees in nursing, known in the profession as an "RN-to-BSN" program. The online degree program started this fall, will be offered twice a year and is accelerated, meaning a student could earn the higher degree in two semesters, said Shelley Austin, the university's chairman for the department of nursing and an assistant professor.
The program is available to National Park College students in Hot Springs as well as to working registered nurses interested in pursuing a bachelor's degree. HSU officials are hoping the online delivery -- along with the traditional methods -- will double the capacity of the university's nursing program.
HSU will also roll out a master's degree program in nursing in fall 2018, said the university's president, Glen Jones. He added that the university is also planning a doctorate program in the field.
"It's a great example of us as institutions partnering, leveraging the sources that we have that the state has already entrusted to us and using that to leverage the addition of even more resources," he said. "I think this is a great example of us serving the public and meeting the needs of the public as they're expressed to us."
Metro on 09/11/2017