Hands-on experience:

The nursing shortage has delivered a triple whammy to nursing schools in the United States.

First, there’s the problem of an aging nursing faculty and the difficulty of attracting new recruits to fill the ranks and work for academic salaries that are lower than clinical pay.

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PHIL JONES / Medical College of Georgia

Medical College of Georgia senior nursing student Lauren Smith (second from left) shows junior nursing students (from left) Chris Williams, Jason Barham and Cassie Martin how to keep infection out of a port during a skills lab.

Second, schools are being asked to graduate more nurses at a time when teachers, preceptors and lab space are hard to come by, and when technology and health care knowledge are expanding.

Finally, there’s the challenge of placing students in increasingly understaffed health care settings to gain hands-on experience.

Yet the members of the Class of 2009 at the Medical College of Georgia’s School of Nursing will each graduate with 990 hours of clinical experience — 45 more hours than previous graduates.

So, how did MCG manage to come up with more clinical hours in its requirements?

“Very creatively,” said Rebecca Rule, RN, MN, MPH, director of the BSN program. “We have a wonderfully dedicated faculty who manage to teach, research and do community service. They rose to the occasion and met the challenge head-on several years ago.”

The number of didactic hours required for graduates didn’t change, but faculty members did set different priorities, Rule said.

Some courses were blended. Separate OB-GYN and pediatric classes were merged into a more holistic class about women, children and families. To give more in-depth instruction, the pathophysiology/pharmacology course became two separate classes. The faculty increased the didactic hours in community health.

“We believe that the new curriculum gives students a much more balanced and patient-centered-care education,” Rule said.

The Medical College of Georgia’s BSN degree is a two-plus-two program, in which students complete their core studies at the college of their choice and then transfer to the nursing school for their junior and senior years.

To achieve more clinical hours in those two years, MCG faculty lead small groups of students in rotations, and the school’s clinical partners allow students and faculty to spend more time at their facilities.

“I don’t think I can say enough about [our] partners, because without them we couldn’t provide these great clinical experiences for the students,” Rule said. “They are very open, welcoming and patient.”

The number of partners who have opened their doors has allowed the program to achieve a student/faculty ratio of 8-to-1, an improvement over the 10-to-1 ratio mandated by the Georgia Board of Nursing.

Clinical experience is crucial because “it puts what students learn in the classroom into play and helps them solidify their knowledge and skills,” Rule said.

During their two years at MCG, students work part time for two semesters in a general med-surg setting, followed by rotations in home health, geriatrics, pediatrics, OB-GYN and mental health.

“Thanks to 87 registered nurses saying yes to a preceptor role, our seniors spend their spring semester in a practicum where they work one-on-one with a nurse — learning the job,” Rule said.

Lauren Smith, a senior from Snellville, knew that she wanted to be a nurse when she was a child.

“I always cared about people and whenever someone got hurt, I wanted to help him,” she said.

When she was ready go to nursing school, Smith applied to several but snapped up MCG’s acceptance offer immediately, based on its reputation.

“I’ve loved it here,” Smith said. “I’ve never had better professors than I’ve had here, but you can only get so much from the book. Seeing it first-hand with instructors to help you; coming face-to-face with patients is when you really put a face on a disease.”

Smith hopes to work in intensive care at an Atlanta hospital after she graduates.

MCG encourages its nursing students to work in Georgia and to stay in the profession.

“At the beginning, we tell our students that they are getting ready to embark on a two-year job interview with our faculty, partner institutions and the community,” Rule said. “We’ll be evaluating them and they should evaluate what they see as well. They will be in great demand, so they should choose where they work wisely and carefully.”

MCG’s first-time pass rate for the National Council Licensure Examination is 93 percent, 10 percent higher than the national average.

Rule often hears compliments from preceptors about her students.

“Recently, some oncology nurses at MCG Hospital told us they thought our seniors were incredibly well-prepared and had solid patho-physiology and pharmacology backgrounds,” Rule said. “Other partners and preceptors have told us, ‘We don’t know what you’re doing, but keep it up.’ I’m extremely proud of our students and what we do here.”