Bethel college nursing graduate faculty publish article on return to practice.

Re-Entry Into the Registered Nursing Work Force: We Did It! was published in the Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, Vol. 37, No. 4, July/August 2006. This article is by Bethel College graduate nursing faculty Ruth E. Davidhizar, RN, DNS, ARNP, FAAN, and Doris Bartlett, RN, MS.

Because the enrollment in nursing programs dropped in the late 1990s and healthcare agencies and education programs were seeking ways to increase the numbers of nurses, Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana, and Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana, designed a plan to encourage nurses who had been out of nursing to re-enter the work force. This article details the steps used in this partnership and demonstrates a process for helping registered nurses to return to nursing.

In the 6-credit, 8-week course, nurses were prepared to function on a medical-surgical unit by reviewing important concepts related to nursing practice, physical assessment, nursing process, nursing skills, pharmacology, and clinical nursing update. It was anticipated that receiving college credit for the course would be a motivator for returning to study at the registered nurse to bachelor of science in nursing level. With two full clinical days each week, the students could experience a normal work shift and the routine of a busy clinical unit.

This project was deemed a success by the hospital and college. However, the goal of motivating nurses to complete a BSN was not accomplished in the immediate post phase of the program.

Because of the nursing faculty shortage, a new goal, that of opening an MSN program at Bethel College, has received the attention of the Nursing School, and the nursing refresher course has not been replicated. Bethel College now has an MSN program for Nurse Educators and Nurse Administrators in which Dr. Ruth Davidhizar, Dean of Nursing, and Doris Bartlett, Adjunct Assistant Professor, are both faculty.