Panel Urges Revamp of Nursing Schools

The hodgepodge of admission polices and teaching methods in community college programs that train registered nurses means that quality varies from campus to campus, according to a report from the California Postsecondary Education Commission.

Students often are so unprepared that they flunk or drop out before finishing the two-year programs, said the report, which was released this month. Attrition rates have soared to 70% at some schools.

And students who survive the programs often are so strapped for funds that they must work during their studies, prolonging their time in school, the commission found.

The commission, which makes recommendations to state officials, endorses creating a statewide admission system based on grades and experience, standardizing course work and the classes needed for entrance, and improving financial aid to the neediest students. These suggestions “would put a modest dent in the [nursing] shortage” because more students would graduate and enter the work force, said Murray Haberman, spokesman for the education commission.

California has one of the worst nursing shortages in the country.

As it stands, the state’s 67 nursing programs choose prospective nurses from a pool of applicants with at least a C average. Beyond that, the report suggests, there is no particular rhyme or reason to their standards. Some schools use lotteries; others pick students on a first-come, first-served basis; others take those who have been waiting the longest.

The number of classes that make up the two-year programs also is left to the school’s discretion. Some nursing programs consist of about 40 classes; others have half that. Nursing faculty members at various Southern California schools say funding for the programs is more of a problem than admission guidelines and curriculum.

Judith Holton, director of nursing at Los Angeles Valley College in Van Nuys, said creating cookie-cutter programs “is not going to get them through any faster. We don’t have teachers and we don’t have the room to teach them.”

Holton said hiring three more teachers would mean she could offer weekend classes, shrinking the school’s 185-person waiting list. Such hiring, however, appears unlikely during the current state budget crisis.

Faculty members also take issue with the notion of standardizing the programs.

Programs are designed to meet the needs of local hospitals, said Wendy Hollis, director of nursing at Wilmington’s Los Angeles Harbor College.

“What the student at Butte College needs is not what the student at Harbor College needs,” she said.

Many students would simply like a faster, smoother route through school.

In 1995, Lori Olivar spent weeks outlining the classes she would have to take to get into Los Angeles Harbor College’s nursing program.

More than five years later, she was admitted to the nursing school. Because of her full-time job, her class schedule fluctuated. Some semesters she took a full class load, others just one or two courses.

The San Pedro resident will graduate in June. “It’s a little bit harder for me.... I have to try and remember what I learned five and six years ago,” she said.