Four-year nursing degree certified

The University of South Carolina Beaufort's Bluffton campus has been certified to offer a four-year nursing degree, a long-time goal of the college that medical officials hope will alleviate the area's nursing shortage.

Adding the four-year degree will help fill a need for highly educated nurses to handle the sickest patients, said Elizabeth Lamkin, president of Hilton Head Regional Health Care, which includes Hilton Head Regional Medical Center and Coastal Carolina Medical Center in Hardeeville.

"The acuity of the patients has gone up, so the training of the nurses needs to get better," Lamkin said.

Another advantage of a local program is it will produce nurses who are familiar with the Lowcountry and want to make their careers here, said Lamkin.

"It's an opportunity to keep some of our young people at home," she said.

USCB Chancellor Jane Upshaw agrees. "This professional program will meet a critical need for nurses at our local hospitals, from Savannah to Beaufort, and will provide excellent job opportunities for our students," she said in a news release.

The Bachelor of Science in nursing program received accreditation from the state's Board of Nursing last week, said board spokesman Jim Knight. The program will be reevaluated after the first class graduates, expected in 2011. Reevaluation is required of all new programs, said Knight.

Applications for the program, which will start in spring 2009, will be available by mid-February, said Susan Williams, chairwoman of the university's nursing department.

Williams expects to enroll 30 to 35 students for the core junior- and senior-level courses.

Students are already taking the pre-requisite courses for nursing, and Williams expects some who have completed the college's two-year nursing degree will also apply.

The program is the first four-year nursing program in the county. Technical College of the Lowcountry offers a two-year associate degree in nursing and a practical-nursing diploma.

USCB is one of 10 universities in the state to offer a baccalaureate degree in nursing.

Classes for the USCB program will be held at the South Campus at Bluffton. A second floor will be added to the science building to house the program, Williams said.

Nursing students will take pre-nursing courses during their freshman and sophomore years before applying to and spending five semesters in the nursing program, Williams said.

Meanwhile, the local health care industry will be ready to absorb the future graduates.

In hospitals and doctor's offices throughout the Lowcountry, there's room for nurses of all education levels, said hospitals president Lamkin. It's a need that will continue to grow.

"There's definitely a shortage," she added, "and the nursing population is aging out."