SKYCTC nursing program honored for success

By David Horowitz – Bowling Green Daily News

With all 60 of its students passing the national licensing exam after graduation, the registered nursing program at Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College ranks first among such programs statewide, SKyCTC announced Monday.  

The RegisteredNursing.org recognition derives from the passage rate on a standardized exam nursing graduates take to become registered or licensed practical nurses averaged over five years, said the program dean, Angie Harlan. Every program graduate has passed that test, the National Council Licensure Examination, over the past several years, she said.  

The factor Harlan credits most is faculty’s dedication to students. But another key part, she and other faculty added, is the relationships built with students: Whereas higher education programs commonly have faculty teach certain semesters, SKyCTC’s most nursing program instructors stay with students across the four-semester program.

 “The continuity of care that we give our patients, we’re offering to our students as well,” summed up SKyCTC nursing instructor Lindsey Forshee Davis — herself a program graduate. “This school and the program itself opened doors for me that I don’t know I would have been able to open myself.”  

The passage rate and RegisteredNursing.org recognition point to the success the program and its students have had helping fill workforce needs for medical facilities across the 10-county Barren River Area Development District, according to Harlan.  

Workplaces that hire program graduates, who as students take classes at Bowling Green or Glasgow, span everywhere from bigger hospitals such as T.J. Samson and Med Center Health to smaller rural ones as well as long-term care facilities and mental health care facilities, Harlan said.

Hands-on clinical training at medical facilities, twice a week for all students, is also central to students’ success, Harlan said. Bowling Green students can access 12 general lab stations comprising a mannequin, hospital bed, over-bed table, night stand and I.V. A simulation room features mannequins that can talk, breathe, sweat, have a seizure and more — allowing students to practice emergency operations such as CPR and high-risk baby delivery.  

Students in Glasgow have 19 general lab stations and one simulation mannequin currently — but SKyCTC is planning for the dated facility to be replaced with a newer one, likely in the next two to three years, with more space for the program and students, she said.  

That addition would compound with the program’s recent and existing growth: from 30-40 students four years ago to 60-70 students in recent years, as need and demand across healthcare facilities have risen. The program has added faculty as a result, Harlan said.  

More than 95% of graduating students work as nurses — with nearly all graduates going on to work in the region, she said.

 “Our biggest priority is putting nurses out there and making sure that the nurses we do put out there are keeping the public safe,” instructor Amanda Page said.  

Second-semester program student Rozalynn Devore had already planned to become a nurse, like her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.  

But it was reaffirmed through experience, three years ago, when her older brother got into a motorcycle wreck.  

Nurses saved his life. Then, as he remained in a coma for three months in Nashville, their quality of care gave Devore and her family of mind amid the distance, she said.  

“(It) really kind of showed me that that’s what I want to do as well,” she said.  

She recalled feeling worry and stress two weeks into the program, when two faculty checked in — expressing empathy and asking if they could help with anything from time management to quit time in their office.  

“That was really helpful,” she said.

 Teachers, she added, often pull from real-life experiences when they pertain to lessons at hand.  “So far, it’s been awesome,” she said.  

Addison Hendley, from last year’s graduating class, described the faculty as individuals she’ll never forget, with a wide variety of nursing experience.

 The program was difficult at first — but instructors did whatever they could to help students succeed, she said. Hendley recalled emailing them as late as 10 p.m. with questions she might consider silly, such as areas she should work on, and getting responses the same night. Another instructor, Damita Proffitt, would open up the lab when students needed extra practice on Monday, outside of formal lab hours, Hendley added. There was also a time early in the program, five years out of high school, that Hendley was struggling with math — when instructor Renea Watkins set aside time for tutoring.

 “Even though their operations were 8 to 3, they always took time out of their personal life to answer questions if needed,” she said.

 “(They’re) just truly people you’ll never forget in your life,” Hendley said.