SUNO launches new nursing program
6th September 2022 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
A fresh fall 2022 semester at Southern University at New Orleans also brings the debut of the university’s newest degree program.
Beginning with the start of the new academic year, the first group of students in SUNO’s new Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program arrives at campus to start their studies. SUNO Executive Vice President-Chancellor Dr. James H. Ammons Jr. said that hopefully by producing many new nursing professionals, especially nurses of color, the university can fill a crucial need in communities that are particularly vulnerable to health challenges.
He said he was inspired by watching news broadcasts during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic showing medical professionals working to treat dozens and dozens of sick people while also protecting themselves from infection.
“The university heard this clarion call from the healthcare industry and it pushed us to act,” Ammons said.
Ammons said the ball started to get rolling back in 2015, when a letter of intent was drafted and approved at the first required level. Eventually a consultant was hired to help SUNO officials write up a proposal and plan for the nascent program and its curriculum and navigate the program through the approval process within the university and at the state level. By last year the final few steps were underway, and on June 16 of this year the Louisiana Board of Nursing gave the final OK for the program.
The BSN program will be housed on an entire floor at the natural sciences building, which opened in 2018. Ammons said university officials have received more than 200 inquiries from the public about the program, and while the program currently has openings for 35 right now, school officials hope to boost that to 50 very soon.
Ammons said the coronavirus pandemic made starkly clear the health disparities between people of color and the rest of the community, adding that COVID prompted SUNO officials to create a nursing program that cultivated sensitivity to the particularly emotional, stressful situations in which families of color find themselves. Such challenges are compounded by an ongoing dearth of qualified nurses of color, both locally and nationally.
“The pandemic tore the cover off so many issues around health care,” Ammons said. “There is a critical shortage of nurses, and pre-existing conditions [in the community] make [Black people] predisposed to the virus.
“We feel [starting the BSN program] is the right thing to do,” he added, “but there is also much more that is needed to address this culturally sensitive situation as it relates to health care.”
Ammons said the program currently has three faculty members in the BSN program but plans are in place to up that to 10 eventually. The program is a four-year, 120-hour course of study, with a core of required classes, such as in pediatrics and gerontology.
The top-of-the-line medical and training equipment required to run the courses began to be brought in earlier this year, including hands-on labs with human-patient simulators.
“These simulators can talk, eat and get injections like people,” Ammons said. “The important thing is for these students to have access to this technology so they can be job-ready on the first day.”
SUNO Assistant Professor Dr. Kelly Smith, the interim chair of the BSN program, said one of the primary goals of SUNO’s new nursing program is to provide aspiring nurses and medical professionals with the type of access to a quality education they might not be able to attain elsewhere in the state.
“The significance of adding a BSN program is an increase in the number of nursing students being admitted in the state of Louisiana who were turned away from other programs,” Smith said.
“We had a very ambitious timeline,” she said, noting that once the program got the final go-ahead this past June, the planning process kicked into high gear, especially because they had just a few weeks to get the application and admissions process going. She said seeing everyone’s efforts bore fruit with a new degree course.
“We’re in motion,” Smith said.
She added that program staffers continue to welcome and entertain phone calls, emails inquiries and even walk-ins from prospective students every day. She said the BSN program has already helped boost overall enrollment at SUNO.
“Enrollment has increased significantly because of those individuals seeking admission to the [BSN] program,” Smith said.
She added that the new degree course is an evidence-based, hands-on program that promotes “life-long learning,” as well as preparation for the national nursing licensure exam and other opportunities for career advancement.
“We’re here and open for business,” she said.
This article originally published in the September 5, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
