“We have the power to transform outcomes” Nursing College looks to increase education, opportunities in Alaska

Nurses are the backbone of the healthcare field, but nursing shortages have been the norm for year. While the COVID-19 demonstrated to the world just how valuable nurses are to not just hospitals and doctors, but to the patients and their families, the pandemic also pushed these shortages to crisis levels, with demand outweighing supply nearly everywhere.

Experts knew a significant shortage of registered nurses was coming even before the pandemic, and over the next few years, some states may feel the impact of nursing shortages more than others, while others actually end up with a registered nurse surplus.

Alaska’s situation is particularly critical. A 2022 report by the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association found that Alaska ranks as one of the nation’s lowest numbers of licensed practical nurses. Currently, 1,500 new registered nurses are needed annually in Alaska, making nursing one of the state’s top health worker needs.

The shortage of nurses isn’t due to a lack of education programs; many actually have waiting lists for entry. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, nursing schools had to turn away nearly 92,000 qualified applications of prospective students for baccalaureate or graduate nursing programs in 2021-the highest number in decades. Why were so many turned away or put on a waiting list? It is primarily due to capacity issues, including insufficient clinical sites, classroom space, faculty and clinical preceptors. Unfortunately, salaries for faculty roles aren’t very competitive, making them less attractive to qualified applicants. The shortage in nursing faculty directly affects the number of nurses to fill future demands.

Prospective nursing students here in Alaska face unique challenges like geography, socio-economic, and demographic access to programs.

“Geography shouldn’t be a barrier to receiving a nursing education,” says Mikhail Shneyder, CEO of Nightingale College. Shneyder visited Alaska to give a presentation on the future of nursing in Anchorage earlier this week.

After launching in Alaska 3 years ago, Nightingale is now the state’s largest provider of nursing education by enrollment. Nightingale is an NWCCU accredited college, publicly recognized by other higher education institutions for the quality of its academic programs that is available in nearly all 50 states. Here in Alaska, there are currently 183 students enrolled in the program.

“We recently celebrated our first Alaska cohort of 14 graduates- with many more to come!”

What makes Nightingale unique is not just the distance education piece, but they also have fully embraced utilizing virtual reality to provide reality-based, episodic simulations using Oculus headsets.

“We’ve built an educational model that is mostly remote so that the vast majority of learning engagement can happen,” says Shneyder.

Another piece Nightingale has embraced is a facet of education called micro-certifications—short, competency-based courses that allow educators to demonstrate mastery in a particular area.

“These are especially helpful for rural health, substance abuse, and memory care. They offer students an opportunity to stack the courses together to build credit that can later be used for a formal degree,” says Shneyder, who believes that this is a good way to build future skills and competency, rather than a traditional model.

“70% of students matriculate to Licensed Practical Nursing, Registered Nursing, all the way to Family Nurse Practitioners. Micro-certifications are an excellent way to help students with this.”

Nightingale has been working on building Experiential Learning (EL) partnerships with health care facilities in the Mat-Su for students to apply the skills they have studied, build sound clinical reasoning and a strong ethical manner. According to their website, EL occurs in both simulated and live clinical environments, at an approximately 50/50 ratio, and is divided between online experiential learning and on-ground supervised field experiences. Shneyder says they have been working with Maple Springs and recently met with the Mat-Su Health Foundation to begin developing a partnership.

According to the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, it can take up to 4 months to receive a nursing license, even if the applicant holds a license in another state. That can be seen as a deterrent for finding nurses in Alaska.

In May, Alaska Representative Mike Prax of North Pole, sponsored a bill that would work to get nurses licensed and working faster, part of a 40-state nurse licensure coalition. The bill is supported by hospitals and the state’s nursing board, but is facing pushback from nursing labor unions.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Alaska Pacific University received a federal grant of nearly $3 million over 5 years that will allow the university expand its nursing-education programs. APU began an associate-degree Registered Nursing program back in 2020, and in 2021 added a Licensed Practical Nurse program.

Another aspect that Shneyder hopes to see change in nursing is diversity.

“About 80% of nurses in the US are white and female. This doesn’t reflect the populations they serve.” He cites a 2021 Registered Nursing report that says diversification is the most important aspect of improving nursing services.

“There needs to be a workforce that is developing in a way that works with people, and Alaska is an excellent example of that. We’re working to make education more accessible, with our enrollment growing as much as it has, Alaska can become a model for what is possible in nursing. We are excited about Alaska.”

As education and training opportunities increase, so will health outcomes for patients across the state, and nurses will be key to improving those outcomes and keeping hospitals and health facilities in the Mat-Su Valley and across the state open.

“The future is what we build; we have immense power to change things. We have the power to transform outcomes.”

For more information, visit www.nightingale.edu