UConn nursing program grows to meet 'critical' need

[cougarnurse]

Interesting story: UConn nursing program grows to match ‘critical’ need - Norwich, CT - Norwich Bulletin

The state’s largest nursing program is getting a $14 million boost in state-of-the-art classrooms, examination labs and other expansion features at the University of Connecticut.

The expansion and renovation of UConn’s School of Nursing comes at a time when the state faces a growing nursing shortage and a boom in its aging population.

“There is a critical shortage and it’s going to get worse, particularly in the state of Connecticut, which has a significant aging population,” Nursing School Dean Anne R. Bavier said.

Candace Jones, 20, a 2007 Norwich Free Academy graduate, is one of 450 students in UConn’s baccalaureate program.

Jones said she was drawn to nursing because of her interest in science, but acknowledged that the high prospects of a job when she graduates in two years was an additional incentive.

“I want to take care of people, and I want people to be healthy,” she said, explaining her career choice.

Although Jones wants to work in Boston, 85 percent of UConn nursing graduates work in Connecticut, Bavier said.

Bavier said the average age of nurses is the late 40s and many nursing professors are in their late 50s, underscoring the other side of the shortage — a dearth in nursing teachers.

Connecticut’s elderly population will increase 69 percent by the year 2030, while the number of direct-care health workers is expected to decline 10 percent, according to “When No One Cares,” a statewide report released earlier this year.

In recognition of the national nursing shortage, $500 million in federal stimulus money was made available this year for health professions funding.

Much of the money was designed for grants, loans, loan repayment and scholarships to train approximately 8,000 students and credentialed health professionals by the end of 2010.

Shawn Mawhiney, spokesman for The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, said a shortage of nursing educators has led to low enrollment in nursing programs nationwide.

“We know that we have an aging population that’s going to need health care,” he said.

“Programs like UConn and existing programs, like Three Rivers (Community College in Norwich), are very important in feeding hospitals and other health care institutions with their work force of the future.”

At UConn, a new 15,800-square-foot wing will include a large lecture hall, a case-study room of up to 175 seats, a modern simulation lab and broadcasting capabilities for remote learning.
Construction is expected to begin in 2010, with a tentative opening in the fall of 2011.

The renovated wing will be to the east of the existing 35,000-square-foot school, which is in the 103-year-old Augustus Storrs Hall on Glenbrook Road.

That building will be renovated and a 4,000-square-foot modular building used to meet the demand for classroom space will be dismantled.

Money for the project will come from the UConn 2000 program, which is a $2.3 billion, 20-year state investment in the university’s infrastructure.

The existing school only allows one or two students at a time to work with a simulated patient mannequin.

The renovation also will feature a prominent viewing area for the schools’ Josephine A. Dolan Collection of nursing artifacts, which include nursing items from as far back as the 1800s.

Jennifer Telford of Norwich is an assistant nursing professor who works with the displays as part of her historical research.

“Just to have nursing history finally be a core element of the curriculum of our nursing students will give them such a perspective that many other programs don’t have,” she said.

She said improvements like this hopefully will attract nursing faculty to teach the next generation of nurses.

UConn also offers a doctorate in nursing practice program, which will graduate its first students in December. It’s only the second such program in New England and is designed, in part, to close the 14-year lag between discovery and practice, Bavier said. Thirty students are in that program and another 40 students are in school’s other doctorate program in research.