The College of Nursing has announced an expansion in both the traditional and accelerated programs. The traditional program is set to expand to 64 slots, and the accelerated program to 48.
Usually there is a waiting list for clinical trials that often puts students in idle, a term for the semesters spent waiting availability.
Elizabeth Littmann, alumna, said she was going to have to wait two years to get into her clinical trials when she attended classes at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
"I was one of the lucky ones because a slot opened up and I didn't have to sit idle for a semester," Littmann said.
When Littmann heard of the expansion, she said the changes were "great."
"Its hard enough to recruit people to become nurses and then to tell them they have to wait years to get into clinics is horrible," she said.
The College of Nursing has responded to this increased demand by not only expanding their programs, but also by increasing available slots for clinicals.
It has also extended the application deadline to accommodate the increased need from the student body. The College of Nursing also is able to offer eight $10,000 scholarships to incoming students.
These scholarships are for students enrolled in the Advanced Program through the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
RWJF President Risa Lavizzo Mourey, M.D., MBA. said, "This programs aims to safeguard the health of the nation by helping to ease the nurse and nurse faculty shortage…this new initiative also will advance our strategic goal of promoting leadership in the health professions."
The College of Nursing has also responded by creating a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) that will provide the avenue to create the "leaders in clinical nursing who can improve quality of care for individuals and populations through advanced practice and through improving systems of care" through a curriculum "based on national standards for DNP education," as stated on its web site, http://www.umsl.edu/~nursingweb/index.html.
They are also seeking feedback on the possible creation of a Forensics option for advanced students.
In addition to the creation of new programs, the College of Nursing has implemented technology in the form of human simulator that enables students to perfect their skills before working with live patients. Sam, the human simulator, has been an active part of the curriculum and allowed students to gain confidence before being placed in a clinical.
It has been through their active engagement with the community that the College of Nursing has fostered strong relationships with area hospitals that has enabled them to increase the number of clinicals available that often lead to full time employment.
All of these improvements, expansions, and implementation of technology could not come at a better time.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for registered nurses is "expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations through 2016" and is "expected to generate about 587,000 new jobs."
Littman credits her education at UM-St. Louis for thoroughly preparing her for her new position at DePaul Hospital in the exact same unit as the one that she performed a clinical at during her time at the university. When asked about what she would change, she responded, "A last course in management could be improved but overall my education really prepared me.""But if you eat at places like Penn Station or the Cool Valley McDonald's or you go to the bookstore … [smart card sponsors] provide a pretty good discount," he said.
The two examples Frazer said were the best are the discount at Penn Station, which is a 10 percent discount and a free 20 oz. soda, and then Cool Valley McDonald's location, which allows smart card owners to buy any one sandwich and get one free.
Frazer said the McDonald's discount is only good at the Cool Valley location, but it does include breakfast items.
According to Frazer, Athletics next summer the sponsors, as one of their criteria to determine their continued support of the athletics programs here at UM-St. Louis, will use the sales of these smart cards.
"So, we are trying to get students to use the restaurants and facilities that are spending money with athletics, in exchange we also want to provide the students with some pretty good discounts," he said.
Frazer said the card can be used more than once at the sponsored locations and all students have to do is show the card and employees at the businesses will apply the necessary discounts. "If you eat out once a week this is probably a good investment," he said.
The cards will expire May 31 and can be purchased at Athletic events for basketball and they will also be available for purchase in the Mark Twain Building between the business hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Frazer also serves as a broadcaster for the UM-St. Louis Athletics Department, for basketball games being aired live through the campus' student-run radio station, The U. The first game aired Saturday night at the Women's basketball game against Missouri Baptist, where the Tritons defeated the Spartans 81-53.
In addition to the Triton win, the night marked the official kickoff of the Fightin' Tritons.
Cowan unveiled the Fightin' Triton t-shirts to those in attendance at the SGA meeting and told those who need to pick them up that she would have them in her office after the meeting or they could shoot her an e-mail to come up with another time to pick them up.
Cowan said at the Nov. 20 games there will be a $300 textbook raffle for members of the Fightin' Tritons.
The raffle will take place at the end of all of the basketball games. "My only stipulation is you have to be in attendance and you have to have your [Fightin' Tritons] shirt on," Cowan said.
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