News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The application deadline is Monday for Vol State’s Summer Nursing Program through the Livingston Campus.
Vol State offers an associate of applied science and nursing degree. Assistant Nursing Professor William Hall said students who finish the program can take take the national licensure exam to become a registered nurse.
“The nursing shortage right now is critical,” Hall said. “Across the country, we’ve seen lots of nurses, especially post COVID, exit the field, and we lost a lot of nurses during that time. And so trying to rebuild that pipeline back up is so important. And, of course, nurses provide that critical patient care to meet the needs of the patients in all areas of healthcare. So nurses work in all specialties to really monitor and evaluate and provide exceptional care to those patients.”
The 15-month program begins in May and Hall said students graduate next August. He said the accelerated RN program benefits a lot of students. Application information is available at the Vol State website.
“That gives the benefit of getting out, being able to get to work sooner and being able to get out there and practice as a nurse,” Hall said.
Classes include subject matter such as medical surgical nursing, psychiatric mental health nursing, women’s health nursing, pediatric nursing, leadership and professional practice and nursing. Hall said a career in healthcare can be a very satisfying one, that provides prospective students a lot of rewards.
“Obviously, I’m biased, but, you know, I’ve been a nurse a long time, and I just really believe that it offers you that, that intrinsic factor of feeling that you’ve really made a difference in the life of others,” Hall said. “You get to leave every day knowing that you did something often to really make that ultimate difference in someone’s life. And a lot of the types of nursing that are out there, you look at critical care, emergency type nursing, you know, you’re out there saving lives every day. So the impact is immeasurable.”
Hall said the website provides a list of pre-requisites for the nursing program. Even if you need to finish some other coursework first, Hall said you can get started.
“Students really get exposure and experience to the didactic or the knowledge portion of all those different specialty areas in the classroom,” Hall said. “And then many of those areas we also supplement with lab and clinical experience so that students are in the field and actually able to experience those different specialties and situations with an instructor.”
