WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing to Admit Additional Students with HEC Board Funds

SPOKANE, Wash. — The Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board recently awarded the Washington State University Intercollegiate College of Nursing $570,981 as part of more than $1.9 million in funding for high-demand programs at WSU.

The HEC Board funding will allow the college to accept additional undergraduate students on the Spokane and Tri-Cities nursing campuses. Spokane will admit 10 more students for each of fall 2004 and spring 2005 semesters and the Tri-Cities will admit 10 students for spring 2005. Additional RN to BSN students (associate degree prepared nurses) also will be enrolled online.

The continued state and national nursing shortage has kept nursing graduates in high demand for the past several years.

“Because the program is so competitive and the waiting list is so long, the ability to admit these additional students is good news from both ends of the spectrum,” said Dorothy Detlor, dean of the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing. The additional students for fall semester were notified last week and their reactions ranged from disbelief to being overjoyed.

“Although the shortage in some communities is not as severe as in others, the high percentage of practicing nurses retiring in the next four to seven years is going to have a profound impact on the nursing profession,” Detlor said. 

This fall semester will mark the beginning of the basic Bachelor of Science in Nursing program on the WSU Tri-Cities campus. The 2003 HEC Board high-demand funding provided for 10 students to begin their BSN studies at the Tri-Cities campus for fall 2004. The 2004-05 funding allows for 10 additional students to be admitted in the spring as well.

“The continuity of admitting students each semester will help the Tri-Cities program keep pace with the other WSU College of Nursing sites around the state that admit students to the basic program each semester,” Detlor said. 

The WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing offers courses on five campuses in Spokane, Yakima, Tri-Cities, Vancouver and Walla Walla. The Web-based basic BSN and RN to BSN programs are available from many more locations throughout the state because the curriculum is available online. More than 850 clinical contract sites throughout the state help meet the clinical needs of traditional and online students.

Salaries for new graduates, ranging from $45,000 to $60,000, continue to attract a highly qualified application pool each semester. “The salaries and opportunities for nursing graduates are steadily rising from one semester to the next,” Detlor said. “Nursing continues to be a high-demand career for traditional students, professionals from other health disciplines and those seeking second or third careers.”

As the largest single health care profession, employment for registered nurses will grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2008, creating the need for a million new and replacement nurses by 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 “We are able to admit about one-third of the total number of qualified applicants. The high demand dollars approved by the state legislature last year allowed us to admit 10 additional undergraduate students per semester in Spokane, 10 additional undergraduate students annually in Yakima, and begin offering a basic baccalaureate program, admitting 10 students, in the Tri-Cities beginning this fall,” Detlor said.

Established in 1968, the Washington State University Intercollegiate College of Nursing is the nation’s first, oldest and most comprehensive nursing education consortium. Celebrating 35 years of world-class nursing education, the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing offers baccalaureate, graduate and professional development course work to nursing students enrolled through its four consortium partners: Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, WSU and Whitworth College. Each year the college educates more than 650 graduate and upper-division undergraduate students and prepares more entry-level nurses than any other state educational institution. For more information about the College of Nursing visit the Web site at nursing.wsu.edu.