Scholarships created as Bacone, MRMC team up
November 19, 2008Partnership between college and hospital benefits school, hospital, students
By Keith Purtell The Muskogee Phoenix Wed Nov 19, 2008, 10:52 PM CST
Muskogee Regional Medical Center and Bacone College on Wednesday announced a first-of-its-kind partnership to provide nurses for the hospital and boost nursing academics at the college.
Dr. Robert Duncan, president of Bacone College, said the partnership will create and staff the position of chair of the department of the Billie R. Tower Nursing Program at Bacone College, as well as create 20 nursing scholarships.
“This is an exciting day for both Bacone and the hospital,” he said. “It’s an outgrowth of a series of conversations we’ve been having at Bacone for a number of years. This is part of a discussion we’ve been having about how we could address the nursing shortage in this region and the nation. This partnership began with a suggestion from our board chair suggesting that we have a conversation with the hospital about how we could have a partnership that would benefit the hospital, Muskogee as a community, and Bacone as an institution.”
The person selected for the new position also will serve as associate chief nursing officer at Muskogee Regional Medical Center (MRMC) and will divide time equally between the two organizations.
The requirements for the position include an Oklahoma nursing license and a master’s degree or earned doctorate in nursing.
Muskogee Regional Medical Center will fund the salary for the position, which is expected to range between $75,000 and $85,000 annually. In exchange, Bacone College will provide 20 tuition scholarships each year for full-time nursing students mutually selected by Bacone and MRMC. Recipients of these scholarships must agree that, upon graduation from the program, he or she will accept full-time employment with MRMC for a period of six months for each semester the student received the tuition scholarship.
Duncan said the arrangement will include prioritizing skills that are needed by the hospital.
“We’ll also partner with MRMC to decide which academic programs get scholarships over time so that the specific needs of the hospital are being addressed,” he said.
MRMC Chief Executive Officer Steve Mahan said the partnership will create a smooth road from college to work.
“One thing that person will do is help with the transition when someone graduates from the program and is in their first year of nursing,” he said. “Our parent corporation Capella has taken an interest in this program because they have other hospitals throughout the country that have real nursing needs.
MRMC Chief Nursing Officer Diane Fulton said the need for solutions to the nursing shortage is not unique to the Muskogee area.
“We all know that the demand for nurses is going to continue to grow as the baby boomers get older and their health care needs continue to grow,” she said. “Some studies have even said that by year 2025 there could be a shortage of as much as 500,000 registered nurses. That is staggering.”
Fulton said one of the main reasons there aren’t enough nurses is a lack of nursing instructors.
“In 2007 there were 40,000 qualified applicants nationwide that were turned away from schools because of lack of faculty, lack of clinical sites, and lack of classrooms,” she said. “So, for me, this partnership is really more than a win-win.”