Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 38 : Fall 2018 | Page 26

“The University of Maine System continues to expand enrollment to meet student demand for our nursing programs and the demand from hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities for skilled four-year nurses,” James H. Page, Chancellor of the University of Maine System, said. “Program expansions and facility improvements tied to the University workforce development infrastructure bond will increase our Aroostook County capacity to train the nurses and healthcare professions our rural communities must have.” The UMFK-UMPI collaboration comes at an important time in the nursing field in Maine. The 2016 Maine Nursing Forecaster projects that Maine will face a shortage of approximately 3,200 registered nurses by 2025. A major factor impacting that statistic is age. The median age of Maine nurses in 2015 was 49; at that time, 10,984 nurses in Maine were aged 45 or over, compared to only 7,764 nurses aged 44 and under. The Nursing Workforce Forecast projects that Maine will need to increase its number of newly-licensed nurses by 20 percent each year to solve the projected nursing shortage and avoid impacts on care levels. “The Maine Nursing Action Coalition explored factors related to the nursing shortage in Maine and determined that the total number of nursing graduates will have to increase by 400 more nurses per year to fill the current gap. Each college or university offering a nursing program will have to increase graduates by 30 percent to meet this demand,” Dr. Erin Soucy, Director, Division of Nursing & Allied Health, at UMFK, said. “Expanding our program to Presque Isle allows us to graduate more students at Fort Kent and help with that gap.” In building this program, UMPI and UMFK faculty and staff worked closely to ensure that students will be able to complete their General Education courses at UMPI, including foundation courses in science. The goal is to seamlessly transition them into UMFK for their final two years of courses, which 24 FALL 2018 are predominantly live and online Nursing courses, as well as Nursing clinicals. As part of the program, UMFK Nursing faculty will hold regular office hours on the UMPI campus to assist with program coordination, student questions, and advising needs. In addition, Dr. Soucy will have a presence on the UMPI campus to ensure academic oversight. UMPI is developing temporary lab space on campus for a Nursing suite in Pullen Hall. The lab will include four hospital suites to allow students to practice psychomotor and clinical nursing skills in a mock hospital setting. Each suite will have a hospital bed, bedside table, overbed table, human patient simulator mannequin, and related equipment, including a needle disposal system, glove dispensing system, oxygen, and an IV pole. “Having this lab space and UMFK Nursing faculty on the UMPI campus will allow the students in this BSN program to have the same experience that students on the UMFK campus are having, which will prepare them well for the work they’ll be doing right here in Aroostook County after they graduate,” Barbara Blackstone, Dean of UMPI’s College of Professional Programs, said. “We all see this as a wonderful opportunity to collaborate and help develop the healthcare workforce in Aroostook County.” “We’re excited to have this opportunity to meet the nursing workforce needs in Aroostook County and collaborate with our colleagues at UMPI in increasing accessibility to quality nursing education to the citizens of Aroostook County, the State of Maine, and beyond,” Dr. Soucy said. For more information about the new UMFK Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program at UMPI, contact Patricia Armstrong at 207- 768-9532 or [email protected].