LPN Programs

As Manatee Community College raises concerns over the dropping passing rates amongst the students in pre nursing board exams. It is resolving the concern by reviewing the standards and setting up qualified faculties and adopting specialized educational training methodology to help out the students.

However, the students are reacting in a different way. They are somewhat not completely in mood to accept the changes saying that it is unfair to bring in such changes in the midstream. They even held the meeting at MCC Bradenton to voice their concerns over the matter and are unanimous about not introducing any change in the course and study methodology as such. They said it would not be feasible to bring about the changes now considering that they had joined the program with different set of expectations.

Gail Whitney the co-founder of the Saturday Academy bids adieu to the world. She died on Friday, Sep 26th. The Saturday academy has been instrumental in imparting training and apprenticeship to the students of Portland for the nursing graduate program. It has prepared the qualified and trained nursing graduates to assist the medical staff in hospitals even at critical times.

The program also includes the facility of nursing simulation labs at Providence Medical Center which gives the students nearly first hand experience of the nursing services. The students are also entitled to go through on the job training by the exclusive internship programs to on their nursing skills.

In 2007, there was a shortage of 11,000 full time registered nurses. This report was taken out by Florida Center for nursing report, a center that was established by the Florida Legislature in 2001 to forecast supply and demand of nursing care. By 2020, the shortage will increase up to 52,000. This could be curtailed if only programs are expanded and experienced nurses are given incentives to remain on the job.

Hospitals are aggressively setting recruiting campaigns and perks to attract and retain nurses. Nursing programs at local educational institutions are being added and expanded through innovative partnerships between colleges and hospitals. Dr. Bonnie Hesselberg, dean for Nursing and Health Profession says, "We are all trying to meet demand as quickly as we can." Colleges train RNs and offer a bridge course for LPNs who want to earn their RN certification.

A new study was done at patients who went under nuclear test on heart at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. It showed 21 of the patients did not meet the test criteria so should not have undergone the test. None required a test for cardiac catheterization as they were considered low risk for nuclear testing.

Researchers say eight million nuclear tests are performed nationally. Patients are exposed to a small amount of radiation during the four-hour test, which costs about $4,000. A cardiac nuclear test is a procedure to measure arterial blood flow to the heart during physical or chemical stress. When compared to blood flow during rest, the test reflects a misbalance of blood flow to the heart’s left ventricular muscle tissue, the part of the heart that performs the greatest amount of work pumping blood. Hence all hospitals that perform nuclear stress test on the heart may be wasting time and money.

The University of Texas at El Paso had separated its School of Nursing from the College of Health Sciences two years ago. Their goal was to become the best serving school of nursing in the nation. Their vision has come true, as the school continues to be the best in quality. The college continues to develop new curriculum and relevant degree proposals to train the nurses better.

They are planning to introduce a new bachelor of science in nursing degree option next year for licensed vocational nurses. They also expect to start new graduate concentrations in acute care nurse practitioner, pediatric nurse practitioner, and possibly school health nursing. Dr. Robert Anders, dean of the University of Texas at El Paso School of Nursing, says that they are 100% committed to an increase in the number of BSN and MSN graduates needed by nation.

WellStar Health System has entered into a partnership with Kennesaw State University to enhance KSU’s nursing program. Kennesaw State University offers one of the strongest nursing programs, and the largest, in the state of Georgia. This partnership will help overcome the shortage of nurses in the country.

WellStar’s mission is to provide high-quality health care services to this community. KSU president Daniel Papp said the expanded partnership will help KSU attract “the best and the brightest nursing students in the state.”  KSU and WellStar will work together to recruit more KSU Bachelor of Science nurses to work throughout the WellStar system. The partnership also will provide faculty development funds to retain nursing faculty within KSU’s WellStar School of Nursing.

Choosing a nursing program is a very personal choice. It involves many factors like age as well as interest. LPN Programs involve one year training in schools and colleges. However an LPN earns $38000 per year on average. The state Board of Nursing is not giving approval to all technical colleges for LPN Programs.

Once completing a LPN Program from a good college, one doesn’t need to have any experience to enter a reputable hospital. Students can also go for a full time as well as part time course. However it is always suggested to students to attend all the classes as passing the LPN examination is tough. MATC has the highest no. of students but only 40% sit for the examination and 38% pass. May be for most students LPN Programs are worth it, but their job options are always limited.

Terra Community College Associate Degree in Nursing finally got registered by the Board of Nursing. The program was started by Mary Ann Stevenson, the former director, temporarily in 2006. Finally it got the license on July 21, 2008.

The Director, President and highly qualified faculties were quite excited with the decision. Since 2 years they have been struggling for the Registration. It was a special day for everyone in Terra. The first batch to this program has already graduated in May now they are looking forward to a new batch which would star from August.