Oklahoma City Community 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. Oklahoma City Community College (?OCCC?) aims to create an additional 225 nursing graduates in the State of Oklahoma (?the Proposal?) over five years (?the Proposal Term?). OCCC?s nursing program capacities are limited by the number of nursing faculty and staff employees and the ability to retain quality employees. OCCC shall use funding to add key personnel and maintain competitive salaries. After the Proposal Term, these positions and salaries will be to be supported by increased tuition and fees, unless state funding and other revenue sources offset these costs. To expand, OCCC?s nursing programs will require additional equipment such as electronic medication dispensing systems, dialysis machines, ventilators, intra-aortic balloon pumps, IV pumps, mid and high -fidelity simulators, feeding pumps, and diabetic equipment. The Proposal is reliant on the availability of external clinical rotation placement slots for nursing students.

EVIDENCE

Nursing graduates of the OCCC nursing program that subsequently pass the licensure exam experience a 100% placement rate. OCCC admits 450 nursing students each year. Due to limited program capacity, 345 qualified program applicants are not accepted each year. The demand for nursing education is clear, and the main limiting factor for more graduates is program capacity and external clinical sites.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

All communities in Oklahoma have been affected by the pandemic, and the CDC has stated that ?[p]eople from racial and ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by lack of access to quality health care, health insurance, and/or linguistically and culturally responsive health care.? Additional nurses in Oklahoma benefit the entire state by filling existing healthcare needs. ?People from racial and ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by inequities in access to high-quality education which can lead to lower literacy and numeracy levels, lower high school completion rates, and barriers to college entrance. In addition to educational barriers, limited access to quality job training or programs tailored to the language needs of some racial and ethnic minority groups may limit future job options and lead to lower paying or less stable jobs.? Approximately 38% of OCCC?s nursing students identify as being part of a racial or ethnic minority group.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

OCCC will maintain records on Nursing graduates and employment during the Proposal Term.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma