Four Year Nursing Program

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Forbes.com and Princeton Review some of the most popular and fastest growing majors in the U.S. over the past six years are those in the health related fields.  Health related majors are also the second most popular majors for women.

In November 2011 the California Board of Registered Nurses completed a forecast of the RN workforce in California and concluded that while the nursing shortage the state of California experienced in the early 2000’s has subsided, an examination of workforce factors indicated a likely continued demand for registered nurses in California for the foreseeable future.

The current Mills College undergraduate Nursing program is a 2+2 partnership with Samuel Merritt University in Oakland whereby those entering as first year college students complete the general education curriculum as well as the pre-nursing or nursing foundation courses at Mills College before transferring to SMU for completion of the BSN coursework.  Transfer students to Mills College are required to complete the remainder of their general education and pre-nursing courses before transferring to SMU.  Over the past five years our new pre-nursing students have on average comprised 7% of our total new students.

Concerns with the current program:

·       We experience the same cost per new student enrolled to recruit pre-nursing students as we do all other new students and discount these students at the same rate, however these students generate less tuition revenue as they transfer after 1-2 years.

·       Samuel Merritt University limits the number of students we may send to their program each semester and we are therefore limited in the number of new students we may enroll.  For example in Fall 2013 it is unlikely we are able to admit any new transfer students to our program.

·       Because transfer students are required to complete a minimum of one full year of coursework at Mills we are occasionally forced to deny admission to students with considerable general education and pre-nursing coursework completed despite their eligibility for admission to Mills otherwise.

·       We are one of four colleges in the Bay Area with the SMU partnership which prevents us from establishing a unique position in the marketplace.

·       SMU has indicated a preference for students they enroll directly from community colleges rather than from the four year partner schools and is considering reducing the number of students Mills may send to their program thus reducing the number of new pre-nursing students we may enroll.

·       Ultimately the degree earned but the student is a BSN from Samuel Merritt University thus reducing their likelihood of attachment to Mills as alumnae.

·       Pre-nursing students, prior to their transfer to SMU, demonstrate stronger year one to year two persistence than the overall first year students and are more likely to live on campus as second year students.

Challenges to creating an undergraduate nursing degree:

·       There is a high cost associated with the final two years of BSN program coursework, specifically the need for unique lab facilities and simulation robots.

·       Creation of a four year BSN program and certification by the CA Board of Registered Nurses may be a timely process.

·       We do not currently have a reputation in this market and some local competitors have well established programs including: University of San Francisco, Dominican University, CSUEB, San Jose St. and UC-Berkeley.

Opportunities:

·       As the pre-nursing courses are part of the current curriculum we have the ability to enroll students while developing the facilities.

·       There may be possibilities for collaboration with other local schools.  For profit LVN schools in the area, for example, have the current lab facilities and may be willing to rent space to Mills while our facilities are in development.

·       Holy Names University in Oakland is in the process of exploring similar facility needs for their adult learner LVN to BSN program and should be approached about creating temporary shared facility space.