Tag: Nursing students

BridgeValley Nursing Students Receive Financial Assistance For Daily Expenses

Nine nursing students will receive money for day-to-day expenses with support from the WVU Medicine Aspiring Nurse Program.

On Aug. 15, nine students from BridgeValley Community and Technical College were accepted into the WVU Medicine Aspiring Nurse Program, which provides each student with up to $25,000 to support their day-to-day expenses as they attend school.

Dr. Greg Rosencrance, president and CEO of WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals said this inaugural cohort shows the organization’s commitment to nursing careers.

“We strive to be the best place to receive healthcare and also the best place to work in healthcare,” Dr. Greg Rosencrance, president and CEO of WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals said. “This program is a reflection of our health system’s commitment to our nurses and works to provide a foundation for a successful nursing career.”

Each student accepted into the program will receive their funds over four semesters, including a sign-on bonus in exchange for a three-year work commitment following graduation.

Casey Sacks, Ph.D., president of BridgeValley, said this initiative aims to address the financial challenges faced by nursing students by creating a pathway for them to excel in education and career.

“By offering financing support and recognizing the real challenges faced by nursing students, this program will help alleviate the financial stress students often experience while they are studying,” Sacks said.

Students accepted to the program will also receive support from academic success coaches and complete clinical rotations at Thomas Hospitals to ensure they receive hands-on clinical immersion experiences to assist them as they transition to professional nursing practice.

BridgeValley Community and Technical College was selected as one of the first two community colleges to participate in the program, which was made possible by the partnership between WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals and BridgeValley.

For more information on the WVU Medicine Aspiring Nurse Program, visit WVUMedicine.org/Aspiring-Nurse-Program.

WVU Nursing Program Sees Perfect Pass Rate On Accreditation Exam

All 23 students in the school’s BS/BA to Bachelor of Science in Nursing program passed the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses this past December on their first attempt.

The recent graduating class of West Virginia University’s (WVU) accelerated nursing program posted a 100 percent pass rate on their national licensure exam.

All 23 students in the school’s BS/BA to Bachelor of Science in Nursing program passed the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses this past December on their first attempt. The exam is required to become a registered nurse in the United States, Canada and Australia.

The 18-month program is for students who already had a bachelor’s degree and is composed of older students.

“It’s really great for those kinds of second degree students who wish to have a changing career,” WVU School of Nursing Associate Dean Brad Phillips said.

It’s the second year each student involved in the program has passed the exam, with the state Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses also reporting a 100 percent pass rate in 2020. Counting each individual group of students, this marks the ninth time in the past six years the program has met the pass rate.

Phillips credits the success to the fact that the programs’ students have gone through bachelor’s programs before.

“They have previous degrees, they’re older, they’re more mature,” Phillips said. “They’re truly adult learners that bring a wealth of knowledge, wisdom and skills into their program.”

The national pass rate for first-time exam takers last year was 74 percent nationwide, according to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, with the benchmark in West Virginia being 80 percent.

WVU also opened a similar program at their Bridgeport campus last month, in part to address a nationwide nursing shortage. 

Health System Plans Initiative To Increase Nurses

The West Virginia University Health System plans to launch an initiative that will increase the number of nurses in the state, officials said.

The West Virginia University Health System plans to launch an initiative that will increase the number of nurses in the state, officials said.

WVU Health President and CEO Albert Wright Jr. told theCharleston Gazette-Mail’s “Outside the Echo Chamber” that the system plans to start an associate’s degree nursing program. Wright said the aim is to alleviate a “particularly challenging” nursing shortage in the state.

“The only way we fix the nursing shortage is to drastically and systematically increase the number of nurses we’re producing,” he said.

Wright said the initiative will be based in Morgantown but will have cohorts around the state that will help recent high school graduates complete an associate’s degree quickly and begin working.

WVU Health partnered with Thomas Health earlier this year making it the state’s largest health system.

Multiple new programs have been announced since Gov. Jim Justice cited the nursing shortage caused by the coronavirus pandemic when he announced in December that the state would use federal stimulus funding to aggressively recruit and train nurses over the next four years.

Marshall, BridgeValley Make Degree Agreements

Marshall University is partnering with BridgeValley Community and Technical College to help students who earn an associate degree in nursing to obtain a four-year degree.

The schools signed cooperation agreements last week. They will allow BridgeValley students to earn either a bachelor of science degree in nursing or a regents bachelor of arts degree at Marshall while finishing their courses at BridgeValley.

The options are available to BridgeValley students in South Charleston and Montgomery.

Students who graduate from BridgeValley’s associate nursing degree program will be allowed to pursue a four-year degree through Marshall’s online RN to BSN program.

The schools also will offer the regents bachelor of arts degree intended for adult students. It allows students to use previous and transfer credits toward completing their four-year degree.

West Virginia University Receives Grant for Nursing Students

West Virginia University School of Nursing is using a $1.2 million federal grant to train advance practice nursing students.

The university says the three-year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration will be used to implement the “Improving Nursing Scholarship, Practice, Innovation, Research and Education to Care for WV,” or INSPIRE to Care for WV project.

The School of Nursing intends to collaborate with new and expanded health care partners in West Virginia to strengthen the education of family nurse practitioner students to care for state residents who are vulnerable or live in rural and underserved areas.

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