It takes only one trip to the hospital to understand and appreciate just how critical a role nurses play within health care systems. Patients spend the majority of their time being attended to not by a doctor but by a nurse. Health care reform and the Affordable Care Act are now making the role of the nurse even more critical. A recent landmark report, “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,” by the Institute of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation thoroughly examines the nursing workforce. It includes eight recommendations to maximize the role of registered nurses in providing quality health care for all patients. Penn State’s response to one particular recommendation — significantly increasing the number of baccalaureate nurses — resulted in transitioning all associate degree nursing programs to baccalaureate degree nursing programs while continuing to grow and support its RN-to-BS nursing programs, which are designed for licensed registered nurses with an associate degree or diploma to earn a baccalaureate degree.
"The new health care arena requires nurses to be full partners with physicians and other health care professionals," said Delores McCreary, instructor in nursing at Penn State Altoona. “The baccalaureate education better prepares nurses for this expanded role.”
“By transitioning to an all-baccalaureate nursing program, we are doing the right thing at the right time," said Suzanne Kuhn, assistant professor and campus coordinator for nursing programs.
Chris Rickens, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at UPMC Altoona, agreed with Kuhn that a four-year nursing degree is invaluable.“BSN-prepared nurses receive a more well-rounded education and are more prepared with better critical thinking skills, Rickens said. "The BSN programs contain a more global perspective and prepare nurses to practice in all settings; the curriculum is more diverse to include clinical decision making and nursing leadership and management.” He also sees those nurses as benefiting professionally from having the degree: “Nurses prepared with a bachelor’s degree will have more opportunities to advance to higher positions in management and will be better prepared to enter an advanced degree program more quickly.”
The transition to the baccalaureate nursing program has required significant changes and the implementation of new teaching strategies and technologies, which have built upon the excellent foundation established by the Altoona nursing program faculty, staff, and prior students. Students in the baccalaureate program at Penn State Altoona will spend the first year in general education courses and then have three years of clinical studies, including the use of the state-of-the-art simulation lab located downtown.
“Simulation will be threaded through most of the courses,” said Kuntz. "In the 'sim lab' students work with low- and high-fidelity mannequins to get a feel for what it’s like to work on a real person with minimal risk. In addition to having a “patient” with whom to interact, monitor, and treat, students benefit from the teamwork in sim lab exercises"
Nursing instructor Paula Kustenbauder said, “Some situations are scary and that’s why you depend on your colleagues.” The students may be working on a computerized mannequin but they take it seriously because, even though the mannequin’s symptoms are controlled by a computer, they still don’t want to lose a patient.
Simulation labs have proven their worth; a major study conducted by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing found that high-quality simulation experiences provide valuable clinical learning experience. As a result of these findings, the Penn State College of Nursing will begin to implement increasing levels of simulation into its curriculum, but will also maintain its emphasis on high-quality clinical experiences.
For new nursing students Amanda Illig and Zachary Strasser, who have just finished their first year of general education courses in the nursing program, looking forward to the next three years of clinical courses is very exciting. Illig admited, “I liked getting your basic courses out of the way.” She is studying to be a nurse because she “wants to help people.” Strasser’s reasons are deeply personal: “I had to stay in the hospital about three years ago. Everyone from the nurses to the PAs [physician’s assistants] to the doctors helped my recovery. I got to see first-hand what nurses do on a daily basis.”
The nursing program at Penn State Altoona will soon mark 20 years of educating registered nurses. According to Kuhn, the program transitioned from Altoona Hospital and utilized their skills lab for the first two years. She says, “The nursing program has seen many exciting changes over the last several years, including the development of state-of-the-art simulation learning labs. We have also grown from one program with forty students seeking an associate of science degree to a RN-to-BS program, a second-degree baccalaureate program [as of 2009], and now the general nursing baccalaureate program.” The second-degree accelerated program, which was delivered at Altoona before any other Penn State campus, is quite popular. There is a strong history of nursing success at Penn State Altoona, which will set the stage for this new phase of program implementation.
Rachael Kuntz was just accepted into the general baccalaureate degree nursing program and couldn’t be more pleased. An LPN looking to advance her education with a baccalaureate degree, Kuntz says she was nervous about coming back to school at 31. “My goal was to be accepted to the nursing program. I was scared because I thought ‘I don’t know how to take tests anymore.’” Her fears were unfounded. “I haven’t met anyone at the campus who wasn’t encouraging. Everybody pushes for you. They know what they’re talking about and they make sure you understand.” Just like the traditional students, Kuntz is looking forward to her clinical studies. “I know from places that I’ve worked that Penn State nurses are preferred; their clinical experience is great.”