NSC gets grant to expand online nursing degree program

By Dave Clark

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 | midnight

Anne Schwartz entered the bachelor's nursing program at Nevada State College in 2002 — online.

She found the Web-based courses invaluable as she juggled her responsibilities as a mother and full-time nurse.

Today, Schwartz teaches nursing part-time at Nevada State, and the online program is experiencing a boom.

Officials plan to double online enrollment — now just about 100 students — within the next three years with the aid of a $738,000 federal grant.

The program, which began in 2002, is a partnership with UNLV to improve nurse retention and patient care in Nevada. It aims to recruit at least 30 percent of students from underrepresented groups while enlisting more support from local hospitals and minority nurse organizations.

Schwartz said she spent roughly four hours a week on the computer for about two years to earn her bachelor's degree in 2004.

"It could be any time day or night I wanted to work," Schwartz said. "I didn't have to be in the classroom Monday, Wednesday, Friday."

She said the program lets students work at their own pace. "If you take four years to complete it because of life versus two years, you just have that flexibility," Schwartz said.

The grant from the Health Resource and Services Administration will pay for advertising, a full-time adviser and an assistant for the online program, said Nevada State nursing lecturer Linda Jacobson.

In the past, new enrollment in the online program has hovered between 10 and 15 students each semester. But 30 students enrolled this fall. Jacobson attributed the influx to local hospitals encouraging their nurses with associate degrees to get their bachelor's.

In announcing the grant, Nevada State College cited studies demonstrating that nurses with bachelor's degrees make fewer medication errors, are more satisfied in their jobs and stay longer.

Nevada State officials said 37 percent of Nevada's registered nurses have bachelor's degrees compared to more than 45 percent nationally. The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services recommends that two-thirds of nurses by 2010 hold at least a bachelor's. Many registered nurses hold only associate's degree.

While Schwartz did not have regular classes or much contact with classmates while enrolled in the online program, she said, the instructors were helpful.

"A lot of our assignments asked us how we would incorporate this into our working life," Schwartz said. "They would try to take all of our professional experience and have us able to use it."

Jacobson said she did not have the option of taking classes online when she pursued her bachelor's. She said the program remains the only one of its kind in Nevada.

"I think it's an excellent opportunity for registered nurses," she said. "I think we're very fortunate to have this available for them."

Dave Clark can be reached at 990-2677 or [email protected].