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July 24, 2019

After successful first year, Aroostook nursing program doubles openings

COURTESY / UNIVERSITY OF MAINE The University of Maine System has a number of programs in the works to address the state’s nursing shortage.
By Staff

Following a successful first year of delivering the University of Maine at Fort Kent’s bachelor's degree program in nursing at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, officials are doubling the number of program slots for the fall.

The nursing expansion in Presque Isle is part of the University of Maine System’s commitment to doubling nursing enrollment over the next five years, to address a statewide shortage of nurses that is expected to grow to 2,700 vacancies by 2025, according to a news release.

The program, a unique collaboration between UMPI and UMFK, allows students to complete all four years of the UMFK bachelor's degree on the UMPI campus. 

Program participants are UMPI students for the first two years and UMFK students for the remaining two. Courses are delivered by UMFK nursing faculty on the Presque Isle campus, and students graduate with a UMFK degree. 

The program is designed to meet the needs of place-bound students, who are students who aren’t able to travel to Fort Kent to complete the BSN degree due to family and work responsibilities. The program is also designed to address the region and the state’s nursing workforce challenges.

The program welcomed 16 students last fall. 

“While the number of available slots has been expanded to 32, they have been filling quickly, so we definitely encourage people to apply early,” Stacy Thibodeau, UMFK assistant professor of nursing, said in the release. “We are very pleased with how well the first year of the program went, and we’re looking forward to training the next cohort of future healthcare professionals.”

Classes and labs

The program features nursing classes and labs each semester starting with students’ very first semester freshman year.

“And we do clinicals from Day 1,” Thibodeau said.

In the last year, students learned about personal protective equipment, universal precautions, wound care, the mobility and transfer of patients, and how to check vital signs and collect samples. They were able to take part in a visit to the Maine Veterans Home and interact with residents as they checked blood pressures, assisted with bed baths, and practiced therapeutic communication. 

“We also had a really exciting opportunity to work in conjunction with UMPI’s Medical Laboratory Technology program on a live, hands-on case scenario where we had actual blood from a blood bank and used it to practice hanging IVs for blood transfusion,” Thibodeau said. “Simulations like this are always so impactful. Students were able to practice retrieving blood from a ‘lab,’ patient identification, checking for allergic reactions, and how to prepare and administer blood.”

Thibodeau said one of the most important things that sets the program apart is the way faculty integrate both the art and the science, or the professionalism and compassion, into students’ learning. 

“It’s a very holistic approach to nursing and it prepares students to be more well-rounded professionals when they graduate,” Thibodeau said. 

It’s expected the degree will prepare graduates for leadership roles.

In order to facilitate learning, UMPI has set up a nursing lab with four hospital suites to allow students to practice psychomotor and clinical nursing skills in a mock hospital setting. Each suite includes a hospital bed, bedside table, overbed table, human patient simulator mannequin, and related equipment, including a needle disposal system, glove dispensing system, oxygen and IV pole.

Bond funding

UMPI is investing more than $500,000 from the University Workforce Bond passed by voters last fall to further develop and create state-of-the-art healthcare classroom and laboratory spaces.  

Preliminary work is under way on those efforts.

For more information, contact UMPI’s Admissions Department at 207-768-9532 or umpi-admissions@maine.edu.

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