Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com August 15, 2016 • Worcester Business Journal 13 >> H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N YO U R F U T U R E I S WA I T I N G . WE'LL INTRODUCE YOU. go.nichols.edu/ed16 l 800-470-3379 BA l BSBA l MBA l MSA l MSOL B U S I N E S S A N D L EA D E R S H I P E D U CAT I O N At Nichols College, we provide a dynamic, career-focused business and leadership education that is at the core of everything we do. You'll learn, develop and practice the leadership and innovation skills you need to succeed in the global economy. into a bachelor's – that should all be available for students. When the short- age hits, baccalaureate programs can't fill that void." QCC offers several pathways to nurs- ing including a practical nursing pro- gram that leads to a certificate; an asso- ciate degree; an accelerated nursing associate degree for people who already hold a bachelor's degree; and an associ- ate degree in nursing for paramedics. QCC added 50 new practical nursing seats last year and maintains training partnerships with local companies, like Worcester-based Century Homecare. For students interested in a bachelor's degree, QCC, with Worcester State, offers a 3+1 degree, where students can complete their first three years of nurs- ing school at Quinsigamond and finish off at Worcester State. Programs like this one are what the state calls "RN to BSN programs" and are one of the ways the state wants to encourage nurses to go for their bacca- laureate, according to a 2014 report from the Massachusetts Action Coalition. "Community colleges service people who need to go a different route. I am very passionate about entry level for registered nurses remaining at the associate degree. We all took the same NCLEX [exam] – the success rates are very similar," June said. "The educa- tion that students receive at the associ- ate level is very good and allows them to practice as registered nurses, but as we move towards more technology, upward mobility is what we should be shooting for." Big picture The Becker degree was developed with advancing the nursing workforce in mind, said Judith Pare, Becker's dean of nursing and health sciences. It came out of a push from the American Nurses Association and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to offer new programs that would encour- age experienced providers to get higher degrees, Pare said. The program offers different path- ways for admission – either through an associate, bachelor's or master's track – and a mostly remote curriculum, where students only have to come to campus during the first and eighth week of class and can complete the rest of the course- work online. Becker offers concentrations in either global leadership or nursing informatics. Global leadership graduates could, in theory, go on to work for organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, or in governmental pub- lic health. Nursing informatics gradu- ates will be able to align technology with care in health settings, in support of researchers, and in conjunction with information-technology and course development, Pare said. "Health care is in a state of constant change. In response, the expectation is that nurses will transform their practice to coincide with those changes," she said. "We have gone from traditional ways of care to using technology to support the needs of vulnerable populations, result- ing in the need for practitioners who have the skills to manage care and to prepare younger nurses to advance their own careers." Informatics is incredibly important in nursing, said McCabe from the nurses association. It's not a new field, but it is one that continues to grow, according to a 2014 study from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. In nursing, so much emphasis is put on following orders or sticking to a routine, without too much questioning into why the system is the way it is. But having nurses trained in informatics could help improve the way care is given, McCabe said. "Informatics is used every day in nursing, because all the patient records are computerized. But there is an incred- ible need for doing research at the bed- side also," McCabe said. "The important piece of that is, 'What are the outcomes of your care? What other approach could you take that would be different to help that wound heal faster, or get that person ambulating faster?'" Established excellence UMass Medical School's hallmark is nurse practitioners, advanced nurses who need to have a master's degree, and a doctorate if they go to UMass. Many patients see nurse practitioners in place of a primary care physician, and tapping into the nurse practitioner population has been widely cited as one of the ways to deal with an impending shortage of primary care doctors. Vitello said she was disappointed when a bill that would have allowed nurse practitioners in Massachusetts to practice independently without physi- cian supervision didn't make it through the state legislature before formal ses- sions ended last month. Allowing nurse practitioners to work without supervi- sion could have meant more widespread medical services in rural areas, she said. "I was heartbroken, because I really think this could be the answer to patients getting the health care they deserve," she said. "This is America. People shouldn't wait months to get health care." n Judith Pare is dean of nursing and health sciences at Becker College, which is launching a new master 's of science in nursing beginning this fall. P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y

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