Beyond the News
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In an attempt to bring more nurses to the Las Vegas and Henderson area, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals has partnered with the University of Oklahoma to create a new nursing education program.
The program, University of Oklahoma at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, is in its premilinary stages. If approved by the Nevada Board of Nursing in the coming months, organizers hope to start classes in January, said Joe Wanninger, a representative of Orbis Education. Orbis Education works with nursing schools and hospitals to manage education programs.
The 14-month course is designed for career changers who already have a bachelor’s degree in a different field. Online theory classes will be taught by University of Oklahoma staff. It’s been proposed that the clinical portion of the course be held at the Hartwell Medical Center on the corner of Warm Springs Road and Shadow Crest Drive.
Program pioneers said they hope that by recruiting professionals already in the area and conducting clinical studies locally, graduates will find jobs as nurses in the community.
“Las Vegas has one of the most acute nursing shortages in the country,” Wanninger said. “It trickles down and affects patient safety and quality of care and availability of care. More nursing schools means more graduates, which means more registered nurses for the community.”
The program has already been deemed successful in Oklahoma, where it’s been running for nine years, and in Southern California, where it opened in 2006.
In San Diego, the program’s first class will graduate 20 students in October. Other classes have as many as 78 students enrolled.
“It will make us one of the largest graduators of nursing baccalaureates (in California),” said Jennifer Jacoby, chief nursing officer at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego.
Jacoby said other Southern California nursing schools have waiting lists three to five years long and do not accept students who have bachelor’s degrees in different fields, making the University of Oklahoma College of Nursing a convenient option for those interested.
Nevada State College in Henderson has a similar program, training people with bachelor’s degrees in other field as nurses in a one-year accelerated program.
As it does in other states, the University of Oklahoma at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals will fast track people with bachelor’s degrees to becoming registered nurses, said LeRoy Walker, vice president of human resources for St. Rose.
“We are doing this after looking at the shortage and recognizing that the shortage is only going to increase over time,” Walker said.
Students will pay out-of-state tuition to the University of Oklahoma, which totals about $35,000. Financial aid and scholarships will be available.
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