By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The new School of Nursing at Bowling Green State University comes at the right time.
Though it was envisioned well before the pandemic, the coronavirus underscored the importance of nurses.
Those nurses are in demand. “We’re expecting a 20-percent decrease in our work force as nurses plan to retire,” said Michelle Bussard, director of the School of Nursing. “With that we need another 200,000 nurses annually just to replace the nurses who retire.”
On Tuesday, BGSU officially opened the new home for its Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. The state of the art facility is located in two floors in a wing of what is now called Central Hall, the former home of the College of Business.
“I’m just excited that in the middle of pandemic we’re opening up a school of nursing,” President Rodney Rogers said.
“We are at a critical time in health care and BGSU is ready to meet the challenge with our new BSN program,” Bussard said.
State Senator Theresa Gavarone, a 1988 BGSU graduate who was on hand for the ribbon cutting, noted she spent a lot of time in the building as an undergraduate studying business.
Now Jemeila Hunter, a junior nursing student, expects to do the same.
Because BGSU now offers an on-campus four year nursing program it allows Hunter to both continue to run track and to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a nurse like her grandmother. After BGSU, she plans to continue her career to become a nurse practitioner.
Having a program on campus is attracting prospective students, said Cecilia Castellano, BGSU vice president for enrollment management and student outcomes. Nursing has always been a good draw for BGSU, and this enhances it.
In the past, students would take their first two years at BGSU and then vie for a place in the program run as a consortium with University of Toledo. While the university did its best, the need to commute to Toledo the last two years proved to be a challenge, Rogers said.
That program has been discontinued, though the last classes of students are still working their way through.
Michelle Bussard, who was hired to lead the development of the new program, is excited by what the new facility offers students. The goal of the program is “to increase clinical judgment and leadership skills in our students” allowing them to pass their licensure examination and enter the workforce “at the highest level of skill and knowledge.”
Six highly computerized mannequins that represent all stages of life from a newborn to a geriatric patient are in place in the simulation lab on the second floor. The skills center on the third floor is equipped with mannequins that will allow students to train before going into the simulation lab.
The high fidelity mannequins in the lab have heart and lung sounds, blood pressure, and the ability to talk and blink. Those responses can be controlled by faculty observing behind one-way mirrors.
Bussard’s research is on the use of simulation in developing clinical judgment. This lab is “the highest achievement” for the new program.
“It makes it more realistic for the students,” she said. “They can care for an actual patient before they get to the clinical setting.”
Setting up the new program was a complex process, Bussard said.
“There’s a lot of rules and regulations surrounding nursing education programs,” she said. “We have to abide by those rules and regulations to ensure we have the highest quality education for our students.”
The program has received its five-year accreditation from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education and conditional accreditation from the Ohio Board of Nursing.
That process started back in May 2018 when University of Toledo told BGSU “it wanted to go its own way” said President Rodney Rogers. “When they did that, it really gave us an opportunity to reflect on what can we do here at Bowling Green to better position the university for the future and serve our students.”
BGSU looked at absorbing Mercy College’s school of nursing. But that plan was scuttled.
“When we really looked at that and the needs of society in terms of nursing, we decided that rather than just link up with existing capacity … we felt we really needed to build out capacity.”
BGSU still has a dual degree program with Mercy, one of three nursing paths it offers. It also offers an online RN to BSN option.
The new BSN program as well as the others will allow the university to expand the number of nurses it graduates. While the first BSN class will include 40 students, the university anticipates doubling the number of graduates.
