Nursing student nurses from Florida Keys Community College are learning the finer points of clinical studies, the “hands-on” part of nurse training, from staff nurses at Lower Keys Medical Center, the hospital conveniently located just across the street from the college. Traditionally, students in the two year nursing program spend roughly half their time in the classroom, and the other half with nurse instructors who teach the clinical aspects of nursing. But hiring clinical nurse instructors has become increasingly difficult because, quite simply, theres a lot more money in being a nurse than in teaching others to be nurses. Thats true in Key West and all over America. Yet nursing programs require nurse instructors. The solution? A creative partnership between the community college and the community hospital.
The hospital is supplying clinical nurse instructors from their regular nursing staff. Nurse instructors spend one third of their work week, or 12 hours a week, teaching clinical rotations to nursing students. LKMC pays instructors their regular nursing salary, and benefits, just as if they were working on the floor. The contribution totals $10,000 per semester. Senior LKMC nurses, now nurse instructors Barbara Anderson, Rosemary Farrell, and Chantel McFarland are working this semester as FKCC adjunct faculty. Nurses Anderson and Farrell have been working as instructors at the college, in addition to their regular nursing duties, for several years. McFarland is new to the program. But before now, it was the college that paid the salaries to the nurse instructors. Now, its the hospital footing the bills.
The partnership is a win/win situation, organizers say. Students are enthusiastic about being trained by career nurses, who have worked at LKMC for many years and know the ropes as only experienced and longtime nurses can. And teaching fresh, new nursing students, they say, cannot help but sharpen the senior nurses enthusiasm and even their skills.
“Our nurses love stepping out of their usual routine to do this,” says LKMC Chief Nursing Kim Bassett. “Its absolutely invigorating showing students around the workings of the hospital. Its exciting to teach an important lesson, or show trainees something vital about hospital nursing, and see those lightbulbs go on in a students head, at that instant when they say, oh yeah! I see how that works!”
And, according to Coleen Dooley, Director of the Nursing Program at FKCC, nurses trained at the hospital are actually more likely to settle in Key West, and work right here in the community after they graduate. Both Bassett and Dooley point out that when nursing students form working relationships with longtime LKMC employees, they create important bonds, and are more likely to find career satisfaction working in the small, more friendly atmosphere of Key West.
“This sort of partnering is being done all over the country in response to the nursing shortage,” explained Dooley. “Its necessary to the survival of the nursing program at FKCC, as well as many other similar programs using the same initiatives.”
Fortunately, the national nursing shortage that has severely affected hospitals in many areas of the country is not currently impacting the Lower Keys. Although there are openings on the nursing staff at LKMC, all shifts are sufficiently covered. There are enough nurses on staff to cover hospital needs. But encouraging people to go into nursing, and recruitment in nurse training programs, is an ongoing initiative.
In spite of the many applicants to the local nursing program, that has produced some 600 nurse graduates since its inception in 1966, and provided the Lower Keys Medical Center with a little over half of its nursing staff, administrators face a number of challenges in keeping the program up and running. Because of the high cost of turning out nurse grads, nursing programs simply arent profitable.
But the health of the nursing program, whose nurse graduates consistently score high on national nursing certification exams, is vital to the survival of the local hospital, too, points out Kim Bassett. And thats why LKMC is willing to promote programs that feed fresh graduates into the hospitals work force.
LKMC also partners with the University of Central Florida, providing clinical time in the hospital for local nurses working toward earning more advanced degrees via internet and distance study. Thats how many local nurses acquire advanced degrees, like the bachelor of science in nursing. At LKMC they have the opportunity to complete necessary clinical hours right here at home rather than traveling out of town.
LKMC also partners with Key West Rescue, the ambulance company, in providing clinical studies at the hospital for students training to become paramedics.
The LKMC volunteer auxiliary contributes to keeping the nursing program afloat too, by awarding scholarships to nursing students who work on the staff of the hospital. Currently there are three students in the FKCC nursing program being financed by finds raised by volunteers in their hospital gift shop.
“Some of our finest nurses have come to us via the local college,” says Kim Bassett. “We are interested in finding partnering initiatives that contribute to the continuance of important health education programs in the Lower Keys community.”
