TMCC puts nursing on fast track

A fast-track program designed to double the number of registered nurses graduated from Truckee Meadows Community College is ready to roll but it's running into its own problems with the state's shortage of registered nurses.

Even as potential students attend an orientation session on Oct.

30, college officials will continue their search for qualified instructors.

With the new fast-track program designed to get registered nurses into the field in 16 months compared with the two years in traditional programs TMCC needs to find four registered nurses with master's degrees to teach full-time.

But Mary Love, a professor and acting director of TMCC's nursing program, said last week it's tough to find teachers with those qualifications because registered nurses are in such high demand elsewhere.

The fast-track program at TMCC is part of a legislatively mandated effort to double number of graduates from nursing programs statewide.

Nevada ranks last among the 50 states in the number of nurses that serve residents.

It has 520 registered nurses per 100,000 population; the national average is 782.

The shortage is expected to grow.

The U.S.

Department of Health and Human Resources say staffing shortages, which stood at 11 percent in Nevada in 2000, are expected to grow to 15 percent by 2005 and 28 percent by 2020.

"We're doing a bullet train to a nursing degree," Love said

Participants will get their degrees more quickly than students in traditional programs largely because they won't have many breaks between 15-week semesters.

Then, too, students on the fast track must have an associate's degree or degree from a four-year school before they apply to the nursing program.

Like students in TMCC's traditional nursing program, fast-track students must pass special admissions procedures which include completing a microbiology course and two anatomy and physiology courses with at least a "C" grade.

The school plans to offer more science classes beginning next summer to improve the flow of students ready to enter nursing programs.

"Our goal is to increase the number of graduates without sacrificing the quality of TMCC's nursing program," Love said.

The school's nursing graduates rank above national norms on the national nursing licensing exam known as the NCLEX.

In 2002, TMCC graduates posted a 96 percent pass rate on the exam, compared with a national norm of 86 percent.

So far this year, TMCC graduates are passing the exam at a 94 percent rate.

The Oct.

30 orientation for the fasttrack program will run from 4-7 p.m.

at the second floor of the Elizabeth Sturm Library at TMCC's Dandini Campus, 7000 Dandini Blvd.

College officials say graduates of RN programs earn about $19.70 in entrylevel positions, and registered nurses with five years of experience can earn $22 an hour.

While the nursing shortage in Nevada is worsened by the state's population growth, nurses are in high demand throughout the West.