Grant Provides Expansive Career Opportunities for Nurses

About 3,000 more registered nurses will be needed annually in Connecticut.* Southern is helping to address the shortfall, aided by a grant from Yale New Haven Health System.

AN EXPANSIVE FOUR-YEAR PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE YALE NEW HAVEN HEALTH SYSTEM (YNHHS) AND SOUTHERN will double the number of students graduating with bachelor’s degrees in nursing (BSN) within the next four years — helping to address a critical nursing shortage in Connecticut heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The YNHHS grant provides Southern’s School of Nursing with staff resources, clinical placements, and financial support to boost enrollment in the established and highly regarded traditional BSN and Accelerated Career Entry (ACE) programs. Both have long-standing first-time pass rates ranging from 95% to 100% on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), a premier standard used in the U.S. to ensure nursing competence. Southern’s rates are significantly higher than national levels: in 2021, for example, the average first-time NCLEX pass rate for candidates from all baccalaureate degree programs was 86 percent.

In a bid to boost diversity in the nursing ranks, the grant also funds two new initiatives providing nursing education and career growth opportunities for certified nursing aides and high school students, respectively. These strategies will gradually increase Southern’s nursing graduate numbers from an average of 100 annually to 205 by 2026.

“This groundbreaking partnership with the Yale New Haven Health System will further enhance the university’s mission of access, social justice, and service for the public good,” says President Joe Bertolino. “More than 85% of our graduates stay on to live and work in the state, so this investment will positively impact both the capacity and diversity of Connecticut’s nursing workforce.”

Under the agreement:

• The traditional BSN program will be expanded from a baseline of 90 students per year in 2021 to 100 students in 2022 and 120 students per year in 2023.

• The Accelerated Career Entry one-year nursing program, for students who already hold a bachelor’s degree in a discipline other than nursing, will double in size. The existing summer cohort of 36 students will be supplemented by another 36-strong winter cohort by 2023.

• A part-time, three-year program for working professionals was established in August 2022, with classes available on evenings, weekends, and on-site at YNHHS facilities. Admitting up to 24 students per year, it provides a career path for those now serving as certified nursing aides in retirement communities, hospices, and other healthcare facilities.

• An Accelerated High School Nursing Scholars Program will also be offered, providing students with the opportunity to complete one year of nursing prerequisite courses in high school and then earn their BSN at Southern in three years. Five students will be admitted in 2022 and 12 in subsequent years.

“Southern is uniquely positioned for a successful partnership with YNHHS due to the diversity and local residence status of its student population; shared values of patient-centered care, respect, and compassion; and the strong history of YNHHS employing its nursing graduates,” says Sandra Bulmer, dean of the College of Health and Human Services.

Students recruited for the various programs will be chosen based on interest in a career at Yale New Haven Health, Bulmer says. And YNHHS will serve as the primary clinical education partner, providing placements across eight different clinical courses (Gerontology, Adult Health I, Mental Health, Adult Health II, Maternity, Pediatric, Community Public Health, and the Capstone).

To increase the availability of nurse educators for the joint initiative, Southern and YNHHS will develop and launch an accelerated Master of Science in Nursing Clinical Educator program tailored to YNHHS BSN-prepared nurses who are interested in working as future clinical faculty. The parties will also collaborate to develop a patient care technician certification course for students admitted to nursing and healthcare studies degree programs.

“This is a true partnership in every sense of the word,” says Beth Beckman, chief nursing officer, YNHHS. “We are solving two main challenges — adequate student clinical placement and ample faculty to oversee their clinical learning.”

Both parties also commit to increasing the diversity of BSN students at the School of Nursing and collaborating on efforts to admit and retain diverse students that reflect the patient population served by YNHHS.

“The city of New Haven is 51% diverse, so having someone taking care of you who understands you and knows what your struggles are is very important,” says Maria Krol, chair of the School of Nursing. The new part-time program for working professionals will mean that people of color will be able to climb the career ladder in nursing even as they hold down a job and care for families, she says.

New nursing majors will arrive at Southern at an opportune time. The university held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new, 94,750-square-foot health and human services building in September 2022. About one-third of this space is allocated to greatly expanded nursing facilities and equipment.

Sandra Bulmer, dean of the College of Health and Human Services

“We have worked very hard to open up multiple pathways, not just to bring more nurses into the workforce, but to address the lack of diversity in healthcare,” Bulmer says. “We can all be proud that Southern is responding to the nursing workforce shortage in ways that are meaningful to our community.” ■

WANTED: Healthcare and Human Service Professionals

IN AUGUST, CONNECTICUT GOVERNOR NED LAMONT visited the new home of the College of Health and Human Services to launch CT Health Horizons, a three-year, $35 million program designed to address statewide shortages of nurses and behavioral health providers. The program is a partnership between the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system (Southern is a member), other Connecticut institutions of higher learning, and multiple state agencies. It will provide tuition assistance to incentivize low-income and minority students to enter accelerated and cost-effective nursing and social work programs. Additionally, CT Health Horizons will forward efforts to recruit and retain faculty and develop career pathways for students.

In July, another initiative — the second annual Summer Nursing Symposium — introduced 31 New Haven high school students to the nursing profession and the college experience. The high schoolers were among the first to learn in the new CHHS building at Southern, exploring different nursing pathways, participating in healthcare simulations, and shadowing nurses at Yale New Haven Hospital.