SBU, Mercy collaboration bucks nursing enrollment trends

Nationally, the alarm continues to sound about a projected staffing crisis in the field of nursing – but at Southwest Baptist University, officials say enrollment in nursing programs is surging.

An October 2023 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 4.5 million registered nurses in the United States say they are ready to quit, and more than a quarter of the nation’s nurses say they plan to leave the profession by 2027.

But locally, a growing number of students are hoping to enter the nursing profession by enrolling in the Mercy College of Health Professions at Southwest Baptist University.

Brittney Hendrickson, dean of the college, said the program is seeing roughly three times as many applications this year as it experienced three years ago. Applications for the two-year registered nurse program at the SBU Springfield campus were at 508 in June, compared with 182 in 2021.

While the collaboration between Mercy and SBU goes back decades, the partnership was given its present name two years ago. The majority of students’ clinical time is spent at Mercy facilities in Springfield.

Mercy Springfield Communities is reaping the benefits of the surge, according to Marie Moore, chief nursing officer.

“There’s a lot of strength in collaborating together,” said Moore.

Knocking down barriers for students to enter programs has been a focus of the collaboration.

“We were hearing from our co-workers and from the community that there were financial struggles, that there were system navigation struggles – such as how do you get started?” she said. “Sometimes it can be overwhelming when you’re a student or a nontraditional student to figure it all out.”

The program aims to show students there is a viable and rewarding career on the other side, Moore said.

“We came together to talk about how we can better support the community in offering accessible and tangible career investment, and how we can work together to make that sustainable for our community,” she said.

Hendrickson said knocking down barriers was a priority on the education side as well.

“Our faculty team has worked very hard to reduce overall credit hours in the program, just really looking at that student focus and the curriculum for what is needed to have exceptional outcomes right now,” she said.

As an example, she said, the Associate of Science in Nursing program, a two-year program that prepares students to earn their registered nurse certification and work in a variety of fields, has been reduced from 72 credit hours to 62 starting this fall. With the reduced credit hours, the estimated program cost to students is roughly $35,400, according to Mercy spokesperson Ettie Berneking.

“In reducing the barrier to being able to complete the program, that offsets the program costs,” she said. “When everything in the world is going up in cost, we decrease program costs by reducing those credit hours.”

Hendrickson added that this is coupled with a 100% pass rate from the university.

“That’s really important from a quality of education perspective,” she said. “That tactical, hands-on learning, coupled with a very streamlined academic program approach, has led to some of that success.”

The program also knocked down yet another barrier to entry to reducing the number of prerequisites required for entry, Hendrickson said.

“Right now, there’s three for the fall,” she said, citing anatomy, physiology and microbiology.

She added that students can come in at an entry level to earn their associate degree, and even while completing their associate, they have the option of enrolling in an online completion program for their bachelor’s degree.

“Are they just wanting to get their RN, or do they want to start working towards that next level with their BSN coursework that can be mixed in throughout?” Hendrickson said. “There’s really a lot of flexibility throughout.”

Enrollment is up
Hendrickson said applications for health profession programs across all SBU campuses were at 924 last month, compared with 368 just three years before.

And last year, in the fall 2023 term, 43 students were enrolled in the two-year RN nursing program in Springfield, but in just one year, enrollment has risen to the point that more than double that number – 90 students – are anticipated.

For the four-year nursing program based in Bolivar, 206 applications have been received this year, compared with 130 applications three years ago. The program is approved to admit 45 students each year.

The State Board of Nursing has noticed the interest, Hendrickson said, adding that the board approved an expansion in its programs bridging students from licensed practical nurse or paramedic backgrounds toward becoming registered nurses. The Springfield bridge program expanded to 45 approved seats from 24, while its bridge program based in the Dent County city of Salem expanded to 35 from 24.

The board also granted permission for an expansion of the Bolivar-based four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing program to 45 seats from 30.

Moore said those graduates are supporting the local workforce, with 424 new hires at Mercy from July 2023 to June 2024 – a 15% increase year over year.

“We have seen a 13.8% net positive in nursing labor growth this year,” Moore said.

The rosy glow over the SBU/Mercy partnership contrasts markedly with the pall cast over the nursing landscape in data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, which projects a national shortage that is only anticipated to intensify as baby boomers age and require more intensive health care.

Adding to the problem, according to the AACN, is a shortage of teaching staff at nursing schools around the country. In 2023, U.S. nursing schools rejected nearly 66,000 qualified applications for baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs due to insufficient numbers of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space and clinical preceptors, as well as budget constraints.

Full-time faculty vacancies numbered 1,977 in a survey of 922 nursing schools across the country – and vacancies aside, the schools reported they needed to create an additional 103 faculty positions to meet student demand.

A 2022 AACN survey of RNs nationally showed that 23% of RNs working in outpatient, ambulatory and clinical settings have retired or plan to retire over the next five years, and nurses employed in hospitals reported the lowest levels of job satisfaction.

The number of geriatric Americans is projected to rise, whether or not the health system is prepared for them. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that Americans 65 and older will increase from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050, when they will make up 23% of the population.

Supportive launch
Moore noted that one highlight of the collaborative SBU/Mercy nursing program is the simulation laboratory, which emulates the hospital environment.

“Their simulation lab is so impressive,” Moore said. “It’s like walking into a unit. Their transition to professional practice goes so much more smoothly. They feel comfortable and confident when they enter our patients’ rooms.”

Making the students feel comfortable during their clinical experience is important for their education, but it’s also important for recruitment, according to Moore.

“From a cultural, team perspective, we’ve really made some changes internally of how to best support their learning experience when they’re within our walls,” she said.

Some of the other support offered to students is financial, with students getting paid for their clinical time and with earn-while-you-learn programs.

“We had some students that were just killing themselves doing clinical all day long and then picking up an evening or a night shift, and they were just trying to support their family and go to school,” Moore said. “So we said we’re going to pay you for your clinical time, and that eliminates that feeling like you’re constantly split or strained, trying to make personal demands but also advance your education.”

Hendrickson noted the program is structured for working adults, student athletes, parents and others with multiple responsibilities.

“We’ve got your class condensed to one day a week and your clinicals condensed to two days a week,” she said. “So they’re with us three days a week, which means they can have a work-life balance.”