Friday, May 4, 2007

UVSC Nursing Grads Best at State Boards


According to an article in today's Herald UVSC's Nursing program is pumping out RNs who can pass the state boards at a higher percentage than any other school in the state, with an amazing 94% pass rate.

This makes a few things abundantly clear; (1) UVSC's reputation of having the best nursing program in the state is well-deserved, (2) The school is able to do this despite having the lowest state funding percentage of any school in the state, (3) If Utah is serious about addressing the need for more nurses in the future they would be wise to invest more heavliy in UVSC.

Currently the program can only accept 60 students a year. While this does keep the caliber of students high it also means that there is tremendous room for growth in this sector. The School of Science in Health needs a larger space, even bigger than the proposed expansion to the Pope Science Building, and the state needs to recognize UVSC's contribution to this very important field and increase one-time facility dollars as well as more on-going faculty and staff money.

All students would benefit from a more robust science experience while at UVSC. The school is making the right decision to focus more in this area. It would make sense for the state to step in and encourage UVSC to reach even further.