Left Hand Valley Courier - All Local, All The Time

Colorado is suffering from a shortage of nurses with four-year BSNs degrees - needing as many as 500 new nurses to fill the void. Looking forward, that figure is expected to balloon by 2024, growing to 4,500.

Previously, nurses could have successful, financially feasible careers with a two-year associate’s degree but, as the healthcare and job markets become more competitive, requirements for employees and prodivers are changing. Many healthcare companies now require nurses to have their bachelor’s degree and nurses without may have trouble finding a secure position.

Front Range Community College has consistently looked to bolster our state’s economic and job-markets by training and educating students according to actual area jobs available, not simply assumed societal requirements. This past summer, FRCC opened a new branch within its Center for Integrated Manufacturing that offered technical trade certification programs in robotics, optics, and manufacturing. The college believes these courses will better train a valuable, needed workforce, efficiently and inexpensively.

Once again, FRCC rises to the occasion and seeks to fill the need by providing its current and incoming nursing students an RN-to-BSN Completion program. FRCC’s Fort Collins campus offers the only nursing program in Larimer County and thus will be offering this valuable option to a wide range of potential nurses.

This program requires that students enrolling must have either graduated from an associates degree program (ADN) and have a current, unnumbered nursing license for Colorado or have completed their first semester of an ADN program and are looking to earn their BSN. Edith Matesic, director of FRCC’s BSN program, “We currently have 33 students enrolled—although that number is still changing as we head toward the first day of class. Because this is a brand new program, this number is expected to grow each semester as the program develops.” FRCC believes its straightforward and affordable program will allow more of its nurses to graduate and directly enter the workforce, earning a sustainable income.

Matesic explained, “It will help our graduates get jobs in Colorado and in other states. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) made a strong recommendation that 80 percent of the nursing workforce have a baccalaureate degree (Bachelor of Science in Nursing, or BSN) by 2020. Because that recommendation is nationwide, many health care employers around the country are seeking more BSN-qualified nurses.”

Not only does this degree open up available positions to its holders, it can increase nurses’ eligibility for higher paying supervisory and management positions. The entire program will cost $15,400 for Colorado residents.