Truckee Meadows Community College's nursing program is marking milestones in its efforts to add more nurses to the workforce, says Jayne Moore, the school's interim nursing director.
Among the milestones:
* Orientations for next year's nursing program are being held monthly through April.
(The next orientation is Nov.
10.)
* A successful summer was completed by both of the new nursing programs fast-track and high school pipeline.
* Accreditation was awarded until 2012.
Selections for the next fast-track nursing program will be completed in January, and potential students have until Jan.
10 to apply.
TMCC's second fast-track nursing program can accept 32 applicants, and the regular twoyear nursing program will accept 56 applicants.
TMCC's first fast-track nursing students are handling the intense program well and are scheduled to graduate a year from now in September 2005,Moore said.
The fast-track program requires students to have a prior college degree and to complete the two-year course curriculum in 15 months, which prepares them to take required exams to be a registered nurse.
With funding from Nevadaworks and in partnership with Washoe County School District high schools, 11 high school students are enrolled in the nursing Pipeline Project.
They took TMCC summer classes in nursing, emergency medical services and cellular biology as part of the new Pipeline Project.
The students received a stipend to attend summer college classes.
The stipend was intend to replace the money they could have earned in a summer job.
Those students are now enrolled at TMCC High School, finishing their high school classes and taking prerequisite college courses.
After this year, they will need one more year of prerequisites before qualifying to apply to TMCC's nursing program.
Funds are available for one more group of approximately 24 high school students, who must have a 2.8 GPA to qualify.
TMCC's nursing program also received accreditation for the next eight years through 2012.
The accreditation was granted by the National League of Nursing Accrediting Committee.
"Accreditation is extremely important for our students, because it means that their credits transfer to other U.S.
nursing schools," Moore said."Therefore, they can go on to earn higher degrees after graduation from TMCC's nursing program."
