The ANCC Practice Transition Accreditation program
is dedicated to validating hospital residency and fellowship programs that help
transition registered nurses (RNs) and advanced practice registered nurses
(APRNs) into new practice settings that meet rigorous, evidence-based standards
for quality and excellence. APRNs in the NNP
Fellowship program at Children’s Hospital Colorado are part of an elite
program that promotes the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and professional
behaviors necessary to deliver the safest and highest-quality care.
Pat Givens, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive for Children’s Colorado, tells eurekalert.org, “We are extremely proud that Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Fellowship is recognized by ANCC as one of the highest-quality transition programs in the country for NNPs. The accreditation provides the patients and families we serve across the state and region with the reassurance that our neonatal nurse practitioners are some of the most highly trained in the country.
Children’s Hospital Colorado is one
of the nation’s leading and most expansive pediatric healthcare systems with a
mission to improve the health of children through patient care, education,
research, and advocacy. To learn more about Children’s Hospital Colorado’s
recent accreditation approval for its Neonatal Nurse
Practitioner Fellowship program, visit here.
Nightingale College has announced the expansion of its blended-distance bachelor degree nursing program to Colorado Springs and Boulder, Colorado. Nightingale College is a fully accredited distance learning nursing school, and enrollment is now open for the fall semester in both locations.
Nursing demand is high, especially in the state of Colorado, with an average wage for a Colorado RN of $72,570. Nurses with a BSN average more than $86,000 annually. The nursing shortage in Colorado is expected to be even further impacted by a 29 percent growth in Colorado’s 65-and-over population between 2010 and 2015. Many nurses are also nearing retirement, with 35 percent of the state’s nurses over age 55.
Nightingale College has created a unique approach to distance learning through a Dedicated Distance Cohort (DDC) Model, which combines local experiential learning with online coursework to equip the next generation of nursing professionals. The college partners with healthcare networks that dedicate space for an experiential learning hub where students can practice their nursing skills through simulations. Nightingale College offers a 32-month Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) blended-distance program designed for quick access with three starts per year.
Jonathan Tanner, Vice President of Partnerships for Nightingale College, tells prweb.com, “Nightingale College specializes in providing solutions to nursing shortages for rural and underserved communities. We are excited to offer our nursing programs in Colorado.”
To learn more about Nightingale College’s new distance learning nursing programs opening in Colorado Springs and Boulder this coming fall, visit here.
A community college in the state of Colorado has received approval to offer a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. Colorado is just the latest state to offer a four-year nursing degree at a community college to help increase the number of nurses with BSN degrees.
Julia Sayler, a nursing student in Denver, tells Denver.CBSLocal.com, “I think it’s great, because a lot of people can’t afford the four year experience. We need more younger people out there.”
Research from the Institute of Medicine shows that BSN-trained nurses have better patient outcomes, leading to a recommendation that 80 percent of nurses hold a BSN degree by 2020. States across the country have begun increasing the number of community colleges that can provide a BSN degree to help the country reach that number.
According to the state of Colorado’s 2017 Talent Pipeline Report, there are 2,912 openings on average annually for nurses. In 2016, only 2,558 people graduated with nursing degrees, accounting for a difference of an additional 354 nurses that were needed. The outlook for the next decade looks even worse with a predicted shortage of 13,000 nurses by 2025 according to US Department of Health and Human Services.
The decision to offer a BSN degree at Front Range Community College in Westminster, CO, was made after state lawmakers came together to try to create more ways to get students into the nursing profession to help address the state and nationwide nursing shortage.
To learn more about Colorado’s decision to offer a four-year BSN degree at the community college level, visit here.
Previously proposed legislation to enable 13 institutions in the Colorado state system of community colleges to offer four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degrees was signed into law this week. The new legislation, HB18-1086 “Community College Bachelor Science Degree Nursing,” will set the stage for the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) to begin offering BSN completion programs.
CCCS System President Dr. Nancy McCallin tells GlobeNewswire.com, “Colorado needs more BSN-prepared nurses, and with this legislation, CCCS will now be able to deliver them! We are ready, willing and able to respond to this workforce need, and look forward to presenting new academic offerings that will create a healthier Colorado.”
CCCS developed the legislation in response to requests from healthcare providers who expressed growing concern about the state’s looming shortage of skilled nurses. The bill received widespread support from healthcare providers, industry organizations, and elected officials. Allowing the CCCS system to offer BSN programs will expand options available to nursing students to help address the nursing shortage and improve healthcare outcomes across the state.
The state of Colorado is currently experiencing an annual shortage of 500 BSN-prepared nurses with that figure expected to grow to 4,500 nurses by 2024. Local health care providers have been forced to hire nurses from other states to help fill empty positions, increasing healthcare costs. The new legislation will help address the shortage by enabling institutions to offer four-year BSN completion degrees to nurses who want to fill empty positions but don’t have access to the additional training and education they need.
To learn more about Colorado’s new legislation to address Colorado’s nursing shortage, visit here.
The state of Colorado recently passed new legislation enabling 13 institutions in the state’s system of community colleges to offer four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degrees. The bill passed 12 to 1 in the Colorado House of Representatives Health, Insurance and Environment committee, setting a landmark example for other states looking for solutions to nursing shortages.
The new legislation seeks to address an imminent healthcare crisis in Colorado. Community colleges already teach and train high quality registered nurses, and with an acute shortage of nursing professionals with four-year degrees, the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) sees this as a scalable solution to address the overwhelming shortage of bachelor-prepared nurses.
System President Dr. Nancy McCallin tells GlobeNewswire.com, “We greatly appreciate having had the opportunity for a thorough and forthright discussion of the merits of this legislation. Our colleges have made significant investments in state-of-the-art equipment and simulation labs to create robust nursing programs that can be scaled to offer four-year BSN degrees. Thus, this legislation provides a cost-effective way to expand the number of BSN nursing graduates in Colorado.”
Three community college students testified in favor of the bill, all wanting to pursue BSN degrees but concerned about the cost and logistical issues of transferring to another school. This legislation is important for current nursing students and for future generations who will benefit from local and affordable programs. Nursing students come from a diverse range of socioeconomic backgrounds, so it is also important that they have an equally diverse range of opportunities to acquire additional education and training.
To learn more about Colorado’s new legislation to allow community colleges to offer four-year BSN degrees, visit here.
In collaboration with the University of Colorado, Denver (UCD), the University of New Mexico (UNM) College of Nursing will be launching a post-master’s certificate program to become a psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner. The program which is expected to begin in Spring 2017 is designed for master’s prepared nurse practitioners and nurse midwives to add the knowledge and skills for assessment, diagnosis, and management of mental illness to their scope of practice.
The program, titled Collaborative Advanced Psychiatric Education Exchange (CO-APEX), is funded by a $1.94 million Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant to address disparities in mental health practitioner distribution around New Mexico. Web-based program courses will be offered in collaboration with UCD, but UNM nursing faculty will provide clinical oversight to students and students will receive their degree from UNM.
Several factors are driving the initiative to place a mental health nurse practitioner program in New Mexico specifically. People suffering from psychiatric mental illness are vastly underserved, especially in rural areas, and rural New Mexico populations have some of the poorest access to behavioral health providers in the country. New Mexico also has a suicide rate 59 percent higher than the US average, and rates of alcohol-related deaths and drug overdose deaths are also much higher.
Michael Rice, PhD, director of the CO-APEX project at UCD, says the HRSA grant is based on the reality that there is no health without mental health care. Behavioral health care needs in Colorado and New Mexico are highlighted by death statistics: Colorado ranks sixth for adolescent suicide and New Mexico has the fourth highest suicide rate overall. Mental health services are often not readily available in these two states due to the vast distances of rural populations so the CO-APEX grant will directly focus on training culturally competent psychiatric nurse practitioner to meet the mental health care needs of the underserved.
