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The Holmes Community College (HCC) campus in Ridgeland will add a night and weekend course to its nursing program in the next semester to address the nationwide shortage.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a need for nurses across the country, and Mississippi hospitals are in the same predicament. Dr. Alice Austin, assistant nursing director for HCC’s Ridgeland campus, said the federal government had been advocating sending travel nurses to the state of Mississippi to help with the problem. However, these nurses focused on COVID-19 patients. As COVID-19 cases have declined, the nurses’ contracts have expired and they have left the state for another assignment.
“Now we’ve lost a lot of nurses in Mississippi,” Austin said. “There are still patients in the hospitals who have other problems, but now they don’t have nurses.”
Austin said this shortage of nurses is causing the Mississippi Hospital Association to be desperate for nurses, nursing technicians, CNAs, and anyone with a position to fill in Mississippi hospitals.
“By expanding our program, we can increase the number of registered nurses we deploy in the area,” said Austin.
First class for the night and weekend program will start in January 2022. The class will have 30 students graduating in the summer of 2023. This will increase the current number of nursing students at HCC in the nursing programs on Ridgeland and Grenada campuses. There are currently between 250 and 280 nursing students in the daily program, which accepts new students every August. With the addition of this additional program, more students will be enrolled in the competitive program that will directly benefit Madison County and the Greater Jackson Area.
Most nursing students come within 50 miles and about 90 percent of graduates stay in the area, Austin said. While traveling nurses currently make between $ 80 and $ 180 an hour, nurses in the Jackson area hospitals make around $ 25 to $ 30 an hour. Austin said, however, that most of the students who choose to stay in the area aren’t about the money.
“Most of the students we see come with a desire to do nursing,” Austin said. “The money is nice, but it’s not about the money. We have people in the program who care about people and what they do because they are underpaid and overworked. It’s almost like a teacher. You have to have the will to do this. ”
Students must be motivated to pass the class as the nursing program is one of the toughest programs in college. Your motivation keeps the students going, and prospective students keep applying for the program, Austin said.
“We’ve never had a problem with applicants, but I can tell you that the number has gone down due to the COVID pandemic,” Austin said. “Many people have decided that the time may not be the right time for care.”
There are still more than enough students out there, however, and this new program will hopefully reduce the number on the waiting list and bring more registered nurses to the area. Not only are students still participating in the program, but their exam scores are higher compared to the national average.
“They lost a few last year but they are still above average,” said Austin. “When our students graduate, they graduate, but to become a nurse they have to take NCLEX-RN boards and pass those boards in order to become a nurse in order to work. The national average is 82-83% and we currently have a success rate of 87%. ”
To learn more about HCC’s nursing programs and to apply, visit https://holmescc.edu/career-technical/practical-nursing/.
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https://www.northsidesun.com/local-news-top-stories-schools/holmes-community-college-expanding-nursing-program-meet-community
