PVCC Puma Press: October 2003

	........................

	Photo courtesy of Rod Fensom
	Nursing assistant students Robert Blackshear, Lisa Dy Asian-American, Eulberta Weeks Native American, Keisha Mason African-American hope to be first students admitted into new nursing program.
	........................

In January, PVCC will begin teaching students in its new nursing program in partnership with John C. Lincoln Hospital on 250 East Dunlap Ave.

"This program will be extremely popular," says PVCC's new nursing program chair, Rose Dermody, RN, MSN. A nurse for 35 years, she began teaching in 1991 and came to PVCC last year where she taught the nurse assistant classes.

A maximum of 33 students will be admitted into this program, which takes four semesters to complete, not including summers. Dermody says that all required courses can be taken at PVCC, such as Math 122, Psych 101, Eng 101, Biology 201 and Chemistry 130, while the nursing courses will be taught at John C. Lincoln Hospital.

The only course not currently offered at PVCC is BIO 205, Microbiology, which requires a special lab available only at Glendale, Gateway or Phoenix Community Colleges.

The hospital will provide lab space, classrooms, faculty and computers on site. State rules require one teacher per eight students. After completing the nursing program and passing the Arizona State Board of Nursing exams, students will become RNs with an AA degree in applied science in nursing According to Dermody, John C. Lincoln Hospital came to PVCC in search of a partnership to create this program. They are building two new hospitals in the near future and desperately need nurses. Therefore, they are funding space and faculty in hope that the RNs they train will be willing to stay and work there. Salaries for new nurses start at $35,000 to $38,000 with increases as they specialize or move up into management. Nurse practitioners can easily earn $70,000.

Students at PVCC have been asking for a nursing program for 15 years. Paradise Valley Community College now joins other MCC colleges as the seventh site for a nursing program. The Maricopa Community College system currently teaches approximately 350 nursing students a year. The 30 students at PVCC will be split with 15 drawn from a pool of students on a waiting list and 15 selected from among John C. Lincoln employees or their relatives.

After the Arizona State Board of Nursing approved the partnership program in September, the nursing department sent flyers to the 177 students currently on the waiting list and 37 wanted to come to PVCC with eight choosing PVCC as their first choice. The others opted to wait for slots at their colleges. By Oct. 7, all spaces were filled.

To be admitted to this program, students must pass all required classes with a "C" or better, have a health examination and all immunizations. Students who have completed all required courses may then request one of the seven MCC colleges in order of preference, after which they are placed on a waiting list. These students are randomly matched by computer with their preferences. There is often a semester's wait to enter the program after the required courses have been completed.

On Dermody's wish list is a $3.5 million nursing lab for her students. A proposal has been submitted and she is hopeful that if the new bond issue passes in 2004, PVCC's nursing program will gain the new lab.

Mary Lou Mosley, senior associate dean of instruction says, "Dr. Gina Kranitz worked so hard on this program to make it happen."

Last year, the state legislature passed Senate bill 1260 requiring community colleges, universities and hospitals to double their number of graduating nurses from 1,000 to 2,000 annually. With only 45,000 nurses, Arizona ranks second to last in the United States in nurses per capita. The Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association projects a shortage of 21,000 nurses by 2020. Arizona needs to triple nursing graduates by 2007 just to keep up with its population growth.

Interested students should contact the PVCC Nursing Student Advisement Office, 602-787-7060, for more information. The advisement office will review transcripts and help determine the classes each student needs to complete before applying to enter the nursing program.