Nursing dept. offers first online degree program
Officials hope to use program to help the nursing shortage in Indiana
By Lindsey Newett
Staff Writer
The University of Indianapolis will offer an accelerated online nursing master’s program for the first time beginning in the summer of 2008. The online nursing program will be available to students nationwide who want to complete their degree while continuing to work and maintaining their lifestyles.
The mission of this program is to provide quality, highly needed nurses to the state of Indiana and the country. The program also will accommodate people with non-nursing undergraduate degrees who wish to start a new career path in nursing.
“If the health field was of interest to them [in the past], then nursing becomes very attractive to them.” said Mary Lynn McHugh, dean of nursing.
The online program requires that nursing prerequisites must be met before beginning the master’s portion of the program. The new course is hoping for at least 12 students to enroll this summer.
By taking core courses through Blackboard software, students will be able to complete a master’s degree in 27 months. This program could help fill the current shortage of nurses in Indiana and across the country, McHugh said.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Web site (www.aacn.nche.edu), the shortage of registered nurses in the United States will increase to 340,000 by the year 2020.
Concerns of the program were voiced at the Oct. 23 Faculty Senate meeting. Worries included the constant need for staff members and the additional stress on existing faculty as the program begins to grow. The debate lasted for more than one hour.
According to McHugh, the faculty are trying to tie this program with UIndy’s identity as a small school. The program will still maintain the one-on-one relationship with students through the Internet.
“We have to have adequate technology in place to pull it off and keep the interactive part of the teaching process,” said Roger Sweets, faculty senate president.
According to McHugh, pay levels for nursing faculty have begun to decrease over the years, and it’s getting harder to recruit people into the nursing field.
“The nursing faculty shortage is beginning to reach a crisis point and be a very big barrier to educating the additional nurses this country needs,” McHugh said. “The average age of nursing faculty nationwide is 55-57. And within the next ten years, half or more will be retired.”
The UIndy graduate nursing program was ranked in the top 75 nursing programs in the state, according to U.S. News and World Report.
Sweets said that nurses who have graduated from UIndy have received very high remarks from health care personnel.
“We want this to be a unique way to address the nursing shortage and needs of Hoosiers who need a second career,” Sweets said.
