A tradition that dates to pre-Civil War days gets a 21st-century revision when the Guardian Angel Nursing Education Program returns to the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth, Kan., next fall.
“When the Sisters of Charity arrived in Leavenworth in 1858, their focus was on assisting and providing services for the poor and the needy. Their dual mission was teaching and nursing,” said Karen Fernengel, Ph.D., RN, ARNP, BC, dean of Saint Mary’s new nursing program.
The school founded by the sisters in 1859 evolved into the University of Saint Mary, and the nursing program evolved along with it, responding to circumstances and times over the years.
Its most recent previous incarnation was as a bachelor degree completion program (RN-to-BSN) that operated from the 1980s to 1994, when it was closed due to declining numbers.
Fernengel taught four years in that program. She was rehired in 2004 when the university and the hospitals in the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System announced the decision to establish a new nursing program – a four-year bachelor of science degree with a nursing major (BSN) to be called the Guardian Angel Nursing Education Program because it will be located in what was the Guardian Angel dormitory, a building now being renovated into classrooms, labs and offices.
The well-publicized national nursing shortage was a big factor in the decision to bring a nursing program back to USM, Fernengel said.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that one million new and replacement nurses will be needed to meet health care demands by 2010, and an American Association of Colleges of Nursing survey reports that over 5,000 qualified students were turned away from BSN programs in 2003 because of lack of resources and faculty.
“The nursing shortage caused the partnership to rethink a USM nursing program,” Fernengel said. “The nine hospitals in the sisters’ health care system were feeling the effects of the shortage.”
The hospitals and the university committed to a partnership that reinstates nursing education at USM.
Nursing programs are expensive to operate because of their low teacher-pupil ratios and the high cost of outfitting a topnotch nursing skills lab.
“In the clinical setting, the teacher-pupil ratio is usually about 1:8, compared to the 1:25/40 ratio common in traditional academics…A nursing skills lab, especially in this day and age, is a very costly operation that you must have. That means simulation devices that range from $8,000 to $10,000 for a fairly low-tech mannequin to $30,000 to $40,000 for a high-tech simulator device that responds physiologically with a whole cascade of events.”
The partnership hospitals provided startup funds and the offer of several full-tuition scholarships for students in their junior and senior years.
Pending approval by the Kansas State Nursing Board, which should come in mid-December, the new BSN program will launch in fall 2006 and graduate its first class in spring 2008.
The first faculty member, Deborah Smith, RN, MSN, was hired this fall, and Fernengel said she expects to hire another three or four faculty before next fall. The curriculum is set, and the course descriptions have been written.
“Once we have board approval, we can begin taking admissions in January and February,” Fernengel said. “We are hoping to accept 40 students for the 2006-2007 academic year.”
Some of those 40 anticipated students will be pre-nursing students in their freshman or sophomore years, some will be transfers and some are already at USM, taking core academic subjects and pre-nursing courses.
Brandy Gray, 20, is among the latter.
A USM junior, she expected to be transferring out after her sophomore year.
“I came to USM for basketball and, now, soccer, and I had planned to find another school after two years…But I knew for sure I wanted to stay once they announced this program,” Brandy said.
An Atchison native who now lives in Leavenworth, Brandy chose USM because of its closeness to home. Nursing has long been her career goal.
“I know there is a high demand for nurses – and I have taken most of the prerequisites a nursing program requires…I like the people – like the dean – who are already in the program,” she said.
So does Tara Christy, 20, a second-semester junior who will also apply to the new program. Like Brandy, she is an athlete; soccer and softball are her sports.
“I always was interested in nursing; it runs in my family,” she said. “My mom is a nurse and my dad is a paramedic and my grandparents are in health care.”
She is in the Air Force ROTC program, which regularly takes her to the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence.
“I love Saint Mary; teachers know you by name, there is so much one-on-one attention…When I go to KU for ROTC, nobody knows me,” Tara said.
That is one of the big pluses for USM’s program, Fernengel said.
“Faculty at USM intentionally make connections with students,” she said. “We see the students, we know them.”
For information on the new nursing program, call (913) 758-4386 or contact the USM admissions office at (913) 682-5151.
Kaansas City Nursing News
