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Volume 41, Issue 4
October 14, 2003
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October
14, 2003
Limited positions upset applicants for nurse program
Derek
Meurer
Mesa Legend
“In hindsight, I felt horrible for
students”
Myrna Eshelman
Nursing Department Chair
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| Kim Patterson Mesa
Legend
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Students wait in line to claim a
spot in the nursing program on Oct. 7.
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“This school is ridiculous.”
“There’s got to be a more efficient way of doing this.”
“Their nursing department may be good, but they obviously don’t
know how to organize worth (expletive deleted).”
“I’m going to Gateway.”
These were some of the less-than-favorable comments being spoken by MCC
students waiting in front of the nursing building.
A line of over 250 people assembled in front of the nursing department
on Oct. 7, waiting to be admitted to MCC’s Nursing Assistant (NA)
program for the spring semester.
The line, which was forming as early as 4 a.m., stretched from the door
of the nursing department’s offices all the way around the math/science
building. Over an estimated 250 people were in line.
There were 64 seats available for the spring semester’s NA classes.
Nursing Assistant training is required as a prerequisite to become a Registered
Nurse (RN).
Registration began at 8:30 that morning, and within an hour and a half,
all 64 seats available for the spring semester were filled.
Myrna Eshelman, nursing department chair, said, “In hindsight, I
felt horrible for students.”
Eshelman was shocked to see the huge number of students in line for the
NA program.
“Last spring there were 10 people in line, and this year, over 200.
Word is finally getting out that nurses are needed desperately in this
state.”
According to Eshelman, the nursing department “simply wasn’t
prepared for that scale of a response.”
“We’re taking steps to fix the situation,” said Eshelman.
“I’m arranging for a task force to look into this massive
demand for nursing training. We may also make changes in the way applications
are taken, and we will definitely monitor the lines more carefully, in
the future.”
Several students complained of complications regarding the forms required
for admittance to NA classes.
There are no prerequisites for the NA courses, but there are corequisites;
certain humanities requirements that must be taken ahead of time, or at
the same time, as one’s NA training.
Also, documentation of several types of vaccinations is required, along
with a card certifying CPR training. Many students reached the front of
the line, only to find they were missing one of the required forms, and
were unable to register.
Eshelman expressed her sympathy, but said that all the requirements are
listed in the Nurse Assisting Program packet available in the nursing
department.
The current packet applied for the summer of 2003 through the spring of
2004.
A new packet will be released soon, which will serve for the summer of
2004 and on, which will list the requirements for future applications
to the NA program.
“I’ve alerted our sister colleges, who haven’t begun
spring registration yet, so they can have better luck with the lines,”
said Eshelman. “We’re doing all we can, for now, but we are
already full to capacity, and there are three major problems. First of
all, capable instructors are difficult to find. Classroom space is also
difficult to acquire, and we’re making full use of all that’s
available to us. Lastly, hospital space is difficult to get for the more
hands-on training. Again, we’re already making full use of all that’s
available to us from the local hospitals.”
To those students who were unable to make it into the spring NA courses,
Eshelman recommended trying other local colleges, or preparing in advance
for the summer courses.
“If you bring by your papers to the nursing department, we’ll
look over them to make sure you have everything that’s required,”
Eshelman affirmed. “We’re glad to help. We don’t want
all our potential nursing students getting fed up and becoming computer
science majors.”
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