Southwestern expands nursing program, Aug. 28

SWOCC release – Coos Bay, OR – Southwestern Oregon Community College is excited to announce that it has increased first-year nursing student enrollments for fall 2019 by 16 students. This is up from 24 students in 2018, to 40 students on the Coos campus arriving next month. In addition, we plan to continue to admit to the Coquille cohort four students, and increase the Curry cohort to six students. This brings the total Southwestern Oregon Community College incoming fall 2019 nursing student enrollment to 50 students! The prospect of a nursing shortage causes great concern for health officials and healthcare industry leaders. Nursing shortages are problematic for workforce planners as there are simply not enough nurses to fill vacant positions. This creates significant effects on healthcare quality and delivery, as nurses provide the highest percentage of patient care (Oulton, 2006). Having an adequate supply of nurses is critical to providing access and quality health care to our local community. There are many challenges to maintaining an adequate supply of nurses, including the aging population of Oregon, and the impending retirement of experienced nurses. In addition to the nursing shortage, by 2025 over half of the nursing faculty that is educating in Oregon right now will retire. Southwestern is proud to be addressing this serious shortage with the addition of nursing faculty and clinical facility sites. The turning point to increasing enrollment has come about by utilizing bachelor-prepared nurses from the local community to teach the clinical and lab portions of the curriculum. This frees up our master-degree nursing faculty to be in the classroom. Southwestern would like to take this opportunity to thank our clinical partners! The following clinical sites have been acquired for the incoming first year nursing co-hort: 36 students at Bay Area Hospital (BAH) in Coos Bay; Two students at Lower Umpqua Hospital (LUH) in Reedsport; Two students at Southern Coos Hospital (SCH) in Bandon; Four Students to Coquille Valley Hospital (CVH) in Coquille; Six students at Curry General Hospital (CGH) in Gold Beach. Southwestern Nursing Department staff are as follows: Director of Nursing and Allied Health; Joannie Miller FNP, MSN, RN; Fulltime Faculty; Elizabeth Cooper MSN, RN; Judith Dornbach DNP, MSN, RN; Carma Erickson-Hurt DNP, MSN, RN; Leigh Eswonia BSN, RN – LAB.  Full time Staff; Jade Stalcup Admin Assistant; Allison Seeley SIM tech. Part time Clinical Faculty; Sylvia Wenbourne BSN, RN–BAH–6 students; Michele Pringle BSN, RN-BAH-6 students; Heather Aldrich BSN, RN-BAH-6 students; Robin Finney MSN, RN-BAH-6 students; Kristen Hyatt BSN, RN-BAH-6 students; Andrea Van Pelt BSN, RN-BAH-6 students; Elizabeth Turner BSN, RN-CGH-6 students; Susan Sefers BSN, RN-CVH-4 students; Carol Swift MSN, RN-LUH-2 students; Regina Holman BSN, RN-SCH-2 students. Part time Lab Faculty; Nancy Erb GNP, MSN, RN-LAB – Curry; Lisa Lagesse MSN, RN-LAB – Coos. Southwestern’s Nursing Department would also like to acknowledge the support we have received from the Southwestern administration, our SWOCC family, and Southwest Oregon Workforce Investment Board who is providing a stipend to financially support the clinical staff. This exciting achievement would not have been possible without their support. For more information concerning Nursing and Allied Health Care programs at Southwestern please call 541-888-7342.