{"id":9141,"date":"2023-02-22T09:06:02","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T15:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=9141"},"modified":"2023-02-22T09:06:02","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T15:06:02","slug":"uw-whitewater-at-rock-county-offers-new-nursing-degree-program","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-whitewater-at-rock-county-offers-new-nursing-degree-program\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Whitewater at Rock County offers new nursing degree program"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Instructors and students from Edgewood College engage in teaching and learning. UW-Whitewater at Rock County will soon offer a pathway to a Bachelor of Science in Nursing that can be earned at the Rock County campus through a partnership with Edgewood. (Photo courtesy of Edgewood College\/Rachel Icke)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Residents of southeastern Wisconsin will now have an opportunity to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing while remaining in the region.<\/p>\n

A unique new program brings Edgewood College\u2019s nursing program to the\u00a0University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at Rock County<\/a>\u00a0campus, complete with a full faculty, clinical coordination expertise, and an innovative curriculum that integrates classroom instruction with hands-on clinical and simulation experiences.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Bachelor of Science in Nursing program<\/a>, set to launch with its initial cohort in the fall of 2023, is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) and approved by the Wisconsin Board of Nursing.<\/p>\n

The program is also the product of years of looking at solutions to fill a gap in nursing education in the Rock County area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe area our campus serves is the largest region without a four-year nursing degree program in Wisconsin,\u201d said Tricia Clasen, dean of the College of Integrated Studies at UW-Whitewater. \u201cThis program will allow students to study face-to-face without traveling out of the region to earn their degrees. I credit Interim Chancellor John Chenoweth, then serving as provost of UW-Whitewater, with seeing the value of this collaboration to our campus and to the community and green-lighting the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

A close collaboration with Edgewood College<\/h3>\n

Clasen worked to develop the program with Edgewood colleagues Quinn Mullikin, the associate dean for Graduate Nursing Programs in the School of Nursing, Business, and Health Science, and Rachel Icke, the director of graduate clinical practica and ADN-DNP programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an incredible opportunity for Edgewood College\u2019s\u00a0Henry Predolin School of Nursing<\/a>\u00a0to partner with UW-Whitewater and UW-Whitewater at Rock County to bring a locally based, face-to-face bachelor\u2019s degree in nursing program to the Janesville area,\u201d said Mullikin. \u201cThis collaborative nursing program aligns with our mission to grow nursing as a profession by educating students to be knowledgeable, accountable, responsible, ethical, and culturally sensitive graduates who will become leaders in a changing and diverse healthcare environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Mullikin and Icke are Elkhorn natives who know firsthand what impact the program could have on southeastern Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that patient outcomes are better with BSN-prepared nurses,\u201d said Icke, who works in partnership with Mullikin to coordinate the program at Edgewood. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked hard to craft a program that allows students to stay in their communities and take advantage of the exceptional clinical opportunities available at area health care providers such as Mercyhealth, SSM Health St. Mary\u2019s Hospital-Janesville, Beloit Memorial Hospital System and Rock County Public Health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meeting the needs of Rock County hospitals<\/h3>\n

As Edgewood College and UW-Whitewater at Rock County partnered to develop the program, Icke reached out to colleagues at area healthcare institutions to gauge their interest in the BSN collaboration, receiving a positive response. One industry professional was Michele Demmin, system director of professional development, nursing education and programs at Mercyhealth in Janesville.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big deal for Mercyhealth,\u201d said Demmin. \u201cBoth UW-Whitewater and Edgewood are well known and respected, and it\u2019s exciting to see them come together to provide a local program for nursing. Right now we have three hospitals in Rock County and just one nursing program trying to staff them \u2014 the collaborative BSN program will provide additional highly trained nurses, and the entire community and region will benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

As planning was underway, the program was tailored to best serve the needs of area nursing students. Classroom work will take place in three days \u2014 including two days of theoretical instruction on the Rock County campus and one day of clinical practice \u2014 allowing students to continue to work or care for family as needed. Both the theoretical instruction and the clinical practice will take place with Edgewood faculty.<\/p>\n

\u201cImportantly, that clinical instruction will be with nurse managers and educators at the hospitals where our graduates are likely to be hired at,\u201d said Mullikin, citing the tendency for nursing graduates to continue to work in the area where they completed their studies.<\/p>\n

The first class of future nurses will begin in fall 2023<\/h3>\n

Seven students are expected to make up the first cohort of the program, which will begin in the fall of 2023. The program is expected to grow in groups of seven, reflecting the number of students assigned to one faculty member at a clinical location, with the hopes of a cohort of 21 students in fall 2024 and an additional 21 students in spring 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo meet the fall 2023 needs of the initial cohort, Edgewood College is investing in the equipment and we are tailoring our current space to maximize this opportunity,\u201d said Clasen. \u201cTo expand much beyond that and meet the program\u2019s full potential, we hope to be able to one day provide a state-of-art lab that will allow us to grow the program and really serve the region\u2019s needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students in the program first complete an Associate of Arts and Sciences with a pre-nursing emphasis at UW-Whitewater at Rock County and then apply for priority admission into Edgewood College\u2019s School of Nursing, Rock County campus location. UW-Whitewater students who have already completed their AAS and have the required coursework will make up the program\u2019s first cohort.<\/p>\n

As of Jan. 18, Icke was excited to see three completed applications for the fall 2023 cohort. By the end of the day, all three of them had been accepted. One of those students is Karlye Smrecek, a liberal arts major from Edgerton who has been enrolled at UW-Whitewater at Rock County since 2021. She had always wanted to go into healthcare and become an R.N., and was working with an advisor on campus to consider her options when she heard about the new program from Clasen, who then connected her with Icke.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a perfect moment,\u201d said Smrecek. \u201cThey created the program right when I was ready to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program will allow Smrecek to continue to live at home in Edgerton and work part time as a CNA in Stoughton as she studies. And, just as she already feels at home on the Rock County campus, the clinical environment will feel familiar too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born at Beloit Hospital and have been a patient at both Mercy and Dean,\u201d said Smrecek, referring to the three hospitals the program will be partnering with. \u201cAnd I picked nursing because I have doctors and nurses in my family \u2014 including my Aunt Annie, who used to bring me with her to Beloit Hospital to see what it\u2019s like to be a nurse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smrecek isn\u2019t yet sure what she\u2019d like to specialize in, but once she and her fellow nursing students graduate, they face a bright professional future.<\/p>\n

Rock County nurses report an average salary of $83,720. In southeastern Wisconsin there are more than 1,500 vacancies, making nursing a high-demand field. Nationally, nursing job opportunities are expected to grow by nearly 200,000 \u2014 or 6% \u2014 in the coming decade.<\/p>\n

For information on UW-Whitewater at Rock County\u2019s nursing degree pathway, contact Dean Tricia Clasen at 608-898-5072 or\u00a0clasenp@uww.edu<\/a>. To apply to UW-Whitewater at Rock County, visit\u00a0apply.wisconsin.edu\/homepage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Current UW-Whitewater or UW-Whitewater at Rock County students interested in applying to Edgewood College\u2019s School of Nursing, Rock County campus location should contact\u00a0collaborativenursing@edgewood.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Kristine Zaballos<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.uww.edu\/news\/archive\/2023-01-nursing-program<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents of southeastern Wisconsin will now have an opportunity to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing while remaining in the region. A unique new program brings Edgewood College\u2019s nursing program to the\u00a0University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at Rock County\u00a0campus, complete with a full faculty, clinical coordination expertise, and an innovative curriculum that integrates classroom instruction with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":9143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[84],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-9141","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-whitewater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/9141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=9141"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=9141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}