CCU adds statewide access for nursing degree

SUBMITTED BY: Colorado Christian University

LAKEWOOD – Working adults who dream of getting a nursing degree but can’t juggle school along with their jobs and families can now keep working and pursue their degree in a trailblazing nursing program designed just for them by Colorado Christian University.

“No other nursing program in Colorado offers both instruction and clinical placements in locations throughout the state,” said Barbara White, professor and dean of Nursing and Sciences.

Thanks to satellite classrooms, online study options, and more than two dozen statewide locations for clinical experience, working adults can earn their degree while living virtually anywhere in Colorado. Enrollment is expected to begin this summer for the fall term, and CCU expects its first class of nurses to graduate in 2012.

Classes will be offered at CCU’s main campus in Lakewood and at satellite facilities in the Denver Tech Center, Northglenn, Loveland, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction and Sterling.

 CCU’s innovative Bachelor of Science in Nursing program comes amid high unemployment and a severe nursing shortage that is especially critical in Colorado.  Government studies project that Colorado will have 17 percent fewer nurses than needed in 2010, exceeding the national shortfall, and that figure may grow to 30 percent in the coming decade.

By offering a mix of online study and classroom sites throughout Colorado, students can remain living and working in their home communities. A number of places will be available for hands-on, clinical experience, thanks to a partnership between CCU and more than two dozen hospitals and health facilities throughout the state.

Read a student’s view of the program.

In addition, the program will offer courses in two of the newest, cutting-edge fields of medicine – genetics and global health care – two of White’s areas of expertise.

The global health component will draw from White’s extensive experience working overseas, including in Korea, China and Africa.  Students also will be required to attain some literacy in Spanish and given the chance to go overseas for some clinical experience.

The genetics portion of the program will be enhanced by the involvement of the National Institutes of Health, one of the nation’s foremost medical research centers. It has named White to a new, one-year position as “Faculty Champion,” making her one of 20 educators nationwide who have access to the latest NIH genetics research materials for use in classroom teaching.

White said the new NIH program is an acknowledgement that the specialty of genetics will play a key role in the training of nurses, as well as in the future of health care.

“I think honestly, we’re the only one in Colorado that has the opportunity to take a brand new curriculum and craft it with this cutting-edge material,” White said. “Most programs are already jammed full with content; we can design ours from the ground up.”

CCU can admit 48 nursing students at a time, and students of every faith and belief are welcome.  “We want to give all students the opportunity to explore ethical ideas and values from different perspectives,” White said.

White was hired in 2007 to begin developing the CCU nursing program, which already offers degree programs for currently registered nurses or licensed practical nurses. She is a fellow at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill., and has been a longtime teacher and professor in bioethics and nursing. From 1983-86 she was director of Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center School of Nursing in Denver.

In the next decade, 32 million Americans will gain health care coverage and begin to demand services, even as experts predict a dramatic shortfall in physicians and nurses to treat them. The picture is particularly bleak in Colorado where those who want to get into existing nursing programs face waiting lists of at least a year.

“There a tremendous shortage of nurses today – not only in Colorado but nationwide,” said CCU President Bill Armstrong, a former U.S. senator. “We think this is a terrific opportunity for CCU to serve a whole new group of students, to help alleviate the shortage of nurses in the area and have a whole lot of fun in the process.”