By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Bowling Green State University announced Wednesday an agreement with Mercy Health that will dramatically increase the number of nursing students it educates.
BGSU and Mercy Health have signed a letter of intent to transfer operations of Mercy College of Ohio to the university.
This marks just the first step of the transition that could take up to four years to finalize. First the trustees of BGSU, Mercy Health, and Mercy College need to approve the plan, then it will need to run a gauntlet of state, federal, professional and accrediting boards. That’s expected to take about a year. Then finalizing the arrangement will take another two to three years.
While many details are yet to be worked out, the goal is for BGSU to increase to 2,000 the number of nursing students. It now has about 350 who receive their clinical training through partnership with the University of Toledo. Earlier that summer the two institutions announced that partnership will end in 2022.
Mercy College now has 1,300 students in Toledo and another 200 in an associate’s degree program in Youngstown.
None of the students currently in either the BGSU or Mercy programs will not be affected by the change.
“This is an exciting day,” BGSU President Rodney Rogers said at a press conference announcing the partnership. “Clearly there is a tremendous need to insure we’re growing the number of nursing graduates.”
Bob Baxter, president and CEO of Mercy Health-Toledo Region said: “The demand for nurses and other allied health professionals far exceeds the supply in Ohio and the nation.”
By 2024 the country will need a million more nurses. That demand is driven by the aging of baby boomers, retirements in the health care field, and increasing demand by consumers for health care close to home.
He said that the partnership builds on BGSU’s depth of academic programs and Mercy College’s 100 years of educating nurses.
The collaboration with Mercy Health will also offer BGSU faculty and students opportunities for research. Because of Mercy’s statewide network, clinical opportunities will be available around the state closer to here many BGSU students live.
In entering into this plan, Baxter said, Mercy Health is responding to changing market conditions and the reduction in reimbursement for hospital-based nursing education programs. The transfer will allow Mercy Health to be able to focus on “its core business.”
The need to educate more nursing students was behind the ending of the BGSU-UT consortium.
“At both institutions we were having very high quality, qualified students who weren’t able to get into the nursing program,” Rogers said. The two institutions felt separately they could pursue ways to educate more.
Rogers said he would hope to have more nursing students than Mercy and BGSU now have.
Rogers praised the “personalized education” Mercy offers to both traditional and nontraditional students in its nine degree programs and six certificate programs to insure they are successful.
BGSU has been working to increase its programs for non-traditional students (those who do not go directly to higher education from high school), and “honestly Bowling Green will learn from some of the great work they do.”
He said that the meshing of a public university and a Catholic institution is not such an “odd combination”
“In fact, it’s a great fit,” Rogers said. Both share the core value of serving the community and educating students who graduate ready to serve. “It is absolutely a core value.”
He said that BGSU will “honor the legacy” of the Sisters of Mercy who founded the college 100 years ago.
Mercy College faculty and staff “will continue to be an essential part of the operation following the transition,” according to a statement by BGSU.
“We look forward to welcoming Mercy College faculty and staff to the BGSU family,” said Sue Houston, BGSU vice president for academic partnerships.
