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What's more, the mothering experience of many older
students is good preparation for the multitasking challenges
of nursing, Brown said: "When you start juggling
having children with a job, you have years of time management
and [prioritizing] under your belt."
Having been encouraged by a mentor to enter nursing,
Brown now plays that encouraging elder role herself.
She's part of a program to support nursing students
at Pima Community College in Tucson. A study of nursing
school dropouts found that the average Pima nursing
student was a single mother of 30, Brown said.
In response, two years ago, University Medical Center
created a $2,500 annual scholarship for up to 20 nursing
students at the community college. The scholarship program
lasts up to two years, includes a mentor at the hospital
and involves a commitment to working at the hospital
after graduation.
"It reassures the students that they have a job
when they get out," Brown said. "You've got
somebody who already cares about you. You've got a hospital
that cares about you."
Given enrollment declines in nursing education programs
during the past five years, it's not surprising that
nursing schools are reaching out toward older, second-career
students. Just this year, for example, the University
of Minnesota School of Nursing launched a post-baccalaureate
certificate program that allows 21 people with baccalaureate
degrees to take an intensive 15-month series of classes.
Graduates of the program will receive a certificate
enabling them to sit for the National Certification
Licensure Examination to become registered nurses. Courses
in the certificate program count toward a master's degree,
and students are encouraged to continue on to earn their
master's in nursing.
A University of Minnesota School of Nursing plan to
forge partnerships with local parent-teacher association
leaders also may serve as a vehicle to recruit second-career
nurses, Disch said.
The University of Michigan School of Nursing has a
second-career nursing program. Students with a bachelor's
degree in other fields can complete a BSN degree and
prepare for the NCLEX-RN exam and licensing after 20
months of full-time study. Students can go on to complete
a master's degree in an additional two to four terms.
Other schools, such as Emory University School of Nursing
in Atlanta and Wayne State University College of Nursing
in Detroit, have second-degree BSN programs for students
with undergraduate degrees in other fields.
Then there are the so-called "direct-entry"
MSN programs, which allow people with bachelor's degrees
to earn a master's degree without having to pick up
a nursing undergraduate degree along the way. DePaul
University Department of Nursing, Ohio State University
College of Nursing and the University of Iowa College
of Nursing offer such programs.
The direct-entry program at San Francisco State began
in 1988, and Yorker boasts that it was the first of
its kind west of the Mississippi. The program now has
50 annual openings, to which 60 to 70 people apply.
Yorker says the school's faculty has workshops to prepare
for today's students, including adult learners and those
changing careers. One effect of older students is to
push nursing educators to move away from a "sage
on a stage" teaching style, Yorker said. "We
treat them as coming with a wealth of world experience,"
she said. "Teaching is more of a collaborative
process."
Second-career nurses represent a promising solution
to the nursing shortage, Disch suggests. Much of the
talk about the shortage has focused on reaching out
to young people in grade schools, she said, "but,
boy, I really think to get people interested later on
in life is a far better strategy."
"These people are mature, they're interested in
nursing [and] they know what they're getting into."
FAQs on Nursing as a Second Career:
www.allnursingschools.com/faqs/nursing_2nd_career.php
Second-degree BSN programs:
www.allnursingschools.com/find/results.php?search=Y&st=&prog=second_bsn&submit=Find+a+School
Direct-entry MSN programs:
www.allnursingschools.com/find/results.php?search=Y&st=&prog=AccelMSN&submit=Find+a+School
Contact Ed Frauenheim at eefiv@ix.netcom.net
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