Rose State College

PROJECT PURPOSE

Oklahoma City Community College, Rose State College, and Tulsa Community College (?the Colleges?) propose to utilize Oklahoma?s funding to expand and enhance their nursing programs to educate more nursing students, create and fill more jobs, and alleviate the nursing shortage in Oklahoma. Each of the Colleges will submit separate, but collaborative proposals with the same overall goal, but different financial needs for each institution.

EVIDENCE

Job placement for nursing graduates at the Rose State College is above 90%. Statewide employment placement data from JobsEQ forecasts a dramatic increase in the need for health care workers, particularly nurses, in the next years at not only the central Oklahoma region, but also statewide. Further, the shortage of nurses was exacerbated during the pandemic by the loss of workforce due to retirement and other factors. Clearly, a larger nursing workforce is needed. However, in order to meet this need for more graduates, it is essential that the RSC Nursing Program increases its capacity, faculty, and also improve facilities.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

One thing the pandemic demonstrated is that socioeconomically disadvantaged, minority communities, and the elderly were disproportionately impacted by access to high quality and easily available health care options. For example, many of the areas that are considered ?health deserts? have larger percentages of people that live below the poverty level, are predominantly communities of color, or have an aging population. Further, these same communities would have greater opportunities and representation in nursing program cohorts if nursing programs were expanded to meet the goal of 50 additional nursing graduates per year. All Oklahoma citizens would benefit from the increased and improved care that could be provided if the nursing programs in the state had the necessary additional funds to increase staffing, improve facilities, and increase capacity.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

The Colleges will maintain records on nursing graduates and placement during the Proposal Term. The Rose State College Health Sciences Divison, Academic Affairs, and Institutional Research will collect the data for admission, retention, and graduation for students admitted to the Nursing Program. Further, the data for nursing placement will be collected by the Graduate Survey conducted through the RSC Assessment Committee and by student surveys conducted by the Career Services and Student Engagement offices, and by surveys of health care facilities to determine the number and types of health care institutions graduates are employed.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

Increase tuition & fees

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Not able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma