Life in the rural South has its attractions—clean air, wide-open spaces, and the beauty of nature at your doorstep. However, there can be definite drawbacks—especially, if you happen to get sick in an area where there aren’t enough doctors and nurses to help you get better.
Residents of the Black Belt counties of rural South Alabama have been coping with the challenges of life in a medically underserved area for years. Although Schools of Nursing in metropolitan areas have been taking steps to alleviate an approaching national nursing shortage, their graduates are usually drawn to cities rather than rural areas to begin their careers.
Judson College in Marion is addressing the problem where it is found, by establishing a school of nursing convenient to students who live in rural South Alabama.
“We received provisional approval from the Alabama Board of Nursing to begin our program in November of 2011, and our first class started clinical rotations this summer after a spring semester,” program director Kandace Shoults, MSN, RN, GNP, CNS, said. “Most of our students live in the local area and plan to practice nearby when they graduate.”
After students complete 72 credit hours in the two-year A.D.N. program, they will be eligible to sit for the NCLEX-RN board exam to become a registered nurse.
In the planning stages of the program, Shoults contacted hospitals and other health facilities in surrounding counties to assess their need for nurses and what job opportunities would be open to nursing school graduates
“They told me that their need for nurses to fill positions had reached the point that they were offering scholarships to attract and retain staff,” Shoults said. “Judson’s location is ideally situated to train nurses to help meet this need.”
Judson is the nation’s fifth oldest women’s college, and was named for Ann Hasseltine Judson, America’s first female foreign missionary. Throughout the school’s 175-year history, there has been a strong tradition of service and training students for service occupations. Students have made a significant contribution to the world around them, including projects aimed at improving rural health through screenings and promotion of health awareness. Training in rural health is a particular focus in the nursing program as the school works to help make healthcare more accessible in the area.
To also make studying for their nursing degree more affordable for students, the program offers financial aid in the form of service loan repayment options. Students also have the opportunity to put what they learn in the classroom into practice in clinical settings at Perry County Nursing Home, Bibb Medical Center and Vaughn Regional Medical Center.
“We have built strong relationships with our clincal sites, and our board and adminstration have been very supportive in seeing that we have the resources we need and state-of-the-art classrooms and labs,” said Shoults, who herself graduated from Judson before studying nursing at the University of South Alabama.
“It’s important to me that our students are professional and they care about people,” Shoults said. “I’ve been totally impressed. Our students have interacted so well with patients that everywhere we go they say, ‘Your students are so nice.’ That’s what I like to hear.”