Nurses are the lifeblood of a hospital. They provide direct patient care. They manage units and programs. They serve as advocates and liaisons for patients and their families.
Hospitals across the country are facing the challenges caused by a shortage of these critical health-care personnel. St. Mary’s Medical Center and St. Mary’s School of Nursing are working to reduce the shortage through growth, both in enrollment and facilities.
“There is a nursing shortage nationally, and we as a state are certainly facing severe shortages,” said Dr. Shelia Kyle, St. Mary’s vice president of schools for nursing and health professions. “I think as baby boomers get older and the chronic problems that come with that, you’re seeing not enough nurses to carry the load. There has also been a shift in career choice – a lot of young people are choosing to enter the technology field, and the women’s rights movement has encouraged young people to be whatever they want to be. In the past, nursing was one of only a few traditional career paths for women.”
“All of this has caused a real problem that we’re trying to address in West Virginia, and that the rest of the nation is struggling with also. The schools of nursing have just not been able to meet the demands,” Kyle added.
Expanding enrollment
Founded in 1926 by the Pallottine Missionary Sisters, St. Mary’s School of Nursing – the oldest in the state – has a long history of producing highly qualified nurses whom employers are eager to hire. The school has taken one class of students each year, exposing those select few to a staff with more than 450 years of combined experience. Several years ago, the school increased enrollment to 95 students per year. The first class of 95 will graduate in May. Still, it is not enough.
“We starting looking and asking ‘What can we do, as a school, about this shortage?’ We looked at the figures and talked about whether we could admit students twice a year and decided that, yes, we could do it,” Kyle explained. “So, beginning in August, we will start accepting two classes a year with 60 students in each class, giving us 120 graduates a year.”
The change is requiring the addition of more faculty members to the school to maintain the hands-on approach for which the school has become known.
“Our staff cares about the students and they have an open-door policy in their offices. They’re very hands-on and nurturing in the clinical area. Like the commercial says, these are the ‘Hands of Experience,’” Kyle said. “Nursing school is not a cakewalk. It’s difficult and stressful. But, having been a nurse for 42 years myself, I can honestly say there has never been a day I’ve been bored. Health care changes constantly and I’m always learning something new.”
St. Mary’s nursing program works hand-in-hand with Marshall University in a cooperative program built on a strong relationship. The schools understand that, because 95 percent of graduates stay within a 50-mile radius of the community after graduation, the investment of time, effort and quality education into the students ultimately benefits the community at large.
Center for Education
Because of the increase in staff and student body size at the School of Nursing, St. Mary’s recognized the need for a larger facility to train the health-care professionals of tomorrow. Slated to open in the fall of 2009, pending a certificate of need from the State of West Virginia, the entire St. Mary’s School of Nursing will relocate into a facility three times its current size – the former Big Bear building on Fifth Avenue. The new Center for Education will house the School of Nursing, the School of Medical Imaging and the School of Respiratory Care.
“We will more than be able to handle the additional students coming in and, hopefully, make an impact on the nursing shortage here locally and statewide,” Kyle said.
The state-of-the-art facility will include an interactive lab with lifelike, computerized teaching mannequins, new classrooms, and an expanded computer lab (moving from nine computer terminals to 80). Students who previously used a small, eight-bed mock hospital unit will soon be able to train in two 10-bed units.
“We believe this move will only enhance the educations of our students,” Kyle said. “Some places have to sit still with limited resources and a limited clinical site. This is not an issue we’ll have to deal with at St. Mary’s.”
Nursing career paths
Nurse Margaret Donley exemplifies the variety of career opportunities that can be available to graduates from St. Mary’s School of Nursing. Though she doesn’t see patients day-to-day, her impact on her profession, the hospital and the community is considerable.
As St. Mary’s Director of Organizational Development and Learning, Donley oversees nursing competencies, off-site staff leadership development and work to expand the hospital’s educational approach and e-learning opportunities. Her work dips into every department and every office at St. Mary’s.
And it all began as a student in the hospital’s School of Nursing.
“I had in mind that nursing was what I wanted to do. I only applied to St. Mary’s and I guess I just thought that surely I would get in, although it was not easy,” Donley said.
A 1971 graduate of St. Mary’s School of Nursing and, later, Marshall University, Donley holds both a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s degree in health-care administration. Her first job after graduation was on St. Mary’s medical/surgical 50-bed unit. Her ascent was rapid, thanks in part to how comfortable she said she was in the training she received.
“Within three months on the job, I was very comfortable. Obviously, there was an adjustment period, and as a nurse, the magnitude of being responsible for peoples’ lives can be very overwhelming, but the knowledge base that I achieved at the School of Nursing enabled me to be thrown from the frying pan into the fire, so to speak,” she said.
Donley went on to become head nurse of the department and then assistant director of medical/surgical nursing before being presented the opportunity to help expand the educational approach in the hospital.
“Up until this time, the department focused on maintaining competencies, but wanted to expand their scope in leadership development internally,” Donley said. “The reason I wanted to make the move into management was to find out why things ticked like they did and how I could help make things better for people who work in this hospital so our patients can get the absolute best care possible.”
For Donley, who said she has “thoroughly enjoyed” her entire career, the trade-off of being a voice and advocate for St. Mary’s employees instead of working at a patient’s bedside has been bittersweet.
“You can’t imagine how good it feels to help a patient, to be that person’s voice and advocate. There is a lot of personal satisfaction there. I’m still doing that – just in a broader sense,” Donley said. “Because of my nursing background, I know where these employees live and work, what their priorities are, and I’m able to help implement programs and decisions to address their issues.”
St. Mary’s School of Nursing graduates like Donley work in every hospital in the region, in many types of nursing and management positions.
In the future, there will be more graduates to fill these critical positions, and, the schools leaders hope, maybe less of a nursing shortage, at least in the Tri-State.
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