With 40 percent of nurses approaching retirement age over the next decade, job growth for registered nurses in Florida is projected to grow by 21 percent through 2026. The Florida Center for Nurses projects a critical shortage in the field that could cripple the state’s healthcare system and compromise patient care. St. Petersburg College is working fervently to provide the knowledge and experience that nursing students need to gain their licensure and be leaders in their field.
Practice Makes Perfect
A large part of nurse training is practicing all the things that the nurses do on a daily basis. This is achieved through clinical experience. College of Nursing Dean Dr. Louisana Louis said that with increasing competition for clinical time at local hospitals, a key component of SPC’s clinical instruction is simulation.
“Simulation in nursing provides a safe, non-threatening environment for the student to demonstrate their clinical judgment and critical thinking abilities,” Louis said.
SPC uses simulation manikins to train students, including high fidelity manikins that act like actual patients in the real world. These manikins have pulses, their chests can rise and fall, and their eyes can react by blinking. Students can practice necessary skills like CPR on them to prepare the students before they ever have to work on a real person.
The Florida Board of Nursing encourages the use of simulation to accommodate the number of students in the nursing program. But Louis said that in order for the college to comply, more high-fidelity simulators are needed.
“We have to be able to allow students the proper amount of clinical time to reflect a real hospital experience and better prepare them to take care of patients in our community,” she said.
The Final Hurdle
Once nurses are finished with classes, the final step to becoming a registered nurse is passing the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). Last year, SPC surpassed both the state and national rates with a whopping 93 percent of registered nursing students passing.
“The pass rates are proof that we’ve done our jobs well,” SPC College of Nursing Chair Virginia Schneider said. “It can only get better if we remain consistent in what we’re doing.”
Schneider worked for 23 years as a licensed practical nurse before returning to SPC to become an RN, then later joining the ranks of her alma mater to become first an instructor, then chair of the program in 2015. Schneider and the faculty she oversees use practice tests through Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI) to measure student learning. If students don’t do well on a practice test, remediation is initiated. Schneider says test anxiety plays a big part, and she understands, because she has experienced it herself. So in addition to making students knowledgeable, she also offers a guided meditation to reduce anxiety on test day.
Assistant Dean of SPC’s College of Nursing Clare Owen attributes the high rates of student success to that level of faculty commitment.
“Many of our students are working adults, often with children or other family responsibilities. They need extra help to navigate a challenging program. The faculty are experts with years of clinical practice behind them, and they bring real-life experience into the classroom and make the lectures come alive for the students.”
SPC graduate Erin Hutter passed the NCLEX on the first try, though returning to school after 20 years was a challenge – especially in the testing department.
“I struggled with the test taking, but all of the ATI practice that they do really prepared me,” Hutter said. “And the faculty were so nice and supportive throughout the whole program.”
Schneider said that though it’s great that our students do so well on the NCLEX, it’s not just about test scores. Clinical experience, whether through simulation or in a real clinical setting, is what makes great nurses.
“Scores are wonderful, but clinical confidence is what’s really important. In our community, we graduate about 320 nurses each academic year. They feed right into local hospitals, about 75 percent at BayCare. Every faculty member wants to graduate students whom they would want to take care of them.”
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St. Petersburg College News 