Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington dedicated a new nursing lab Sept. 23 after a $1.2 million grant from Indiana University Health. Four students offered a tour.
(Devan Ridgway, WTIU)
Like other Indiana colleges, Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington is growing its nursing program.
There will be more options, more students and better training labs for the Marchant School of Nursing. The biggest upgrade is a 4,000-square-foot training lab with 18 hospital beds. It simulates hospital and out-patient care with new medical manikins.
It’s helping students like Jacquelyn Shots. A nursing student, Shots wants to work in emergency medicine, and this new lab will help students get hands-on experience.
Shots has experience in the military and as an EMT. But she decided it was time to become a nurse when she worked in Vincennes hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I could see a lot of nurses struggling, like our critical care unit needed help, and our med surg unit was running short,” Shots said. “I was like, OK. This is something that I could do to help out, because everybody needs a nurse at some point.”
Students such as Shots will help fill Indiana’s nursing shortage.
Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington enrolls about 190 nursing students. Jacquelyn Shots is in her first year. (Devan Ridgway, WTIU)
The new lab was made possible with a $1.2 million Community Impact Investment grant from Indiana University Health. The grant will help more people become nurses on their own time at Ivy Tech and fill the need in the region, said Shawna Girgis, IU Health South-Central director of community outreach and engagement.
“Since Covid, we've seen a dramatic increase in the need for nursing providers,” Girgis said. “Just trying to fill those positions, because they're critical to providing the health care that we need to provide in the hospitals, in outpatient settings as well.”
5,000 more nurses by 2031
Hospitals across the country need more nurses to care for an influx of patients. Indiana is no exception, needing thousands of new nurses to meet Hoosiers’ needs. The Indiana Hospital Association predicts the state needs 5,000 more nurses by 2031. Colleges would need to graduate about 1,300 nurses every year to meet the future demand.
Andrew VanZee, IHA vice president of regulatory and hospital operations, said the need in Indiana was similar to other states before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Baby Boomer generation is reaching retirement age, and they will need more healthcare as they age, VanZee said. Meanwhile, the pandemic pushed nurses to retire or leave the industry. New nurses are filling those positions.
“This creates somewhat of an unbalanced supply and demand,” VanZee said.
Samantha Eads, IU School of Nursing Lecturer, said Hoosiers will feel the shortage in small and big ways. They’ll have longer wait times when they need care. Their nurses might be rushed or while they care for more people than normal.
“Burnout is a huge problem for nurses,” Eads said. “So not only do we have a shortage, but we have people leaving the profession after just a few years because it's hard and because we're short."
But as the pandemic’s influence in healthcare decreases, Indiana’s nursing workforce is stabilizing, said VanZee.
Employers, legislatures and colleges are working together, he said. New state laws made the nursing industry more flexible. It’s easier to obtain a license and practice beyond state lines.
Eads said educators are trying to teach nursing student resilience before they enter the workforce. And new laws make it easier for colleges to graduate more nurses.
“This public-private partnership is what has been a cornerstone for Indiana with respect to achieving success for those desired outcomes,” VanZee said.
‘We are scientists and we care’
Four-year programs, such as IU’s School of Nursing, are joining the effort to fix Indiana's nursing shortage.
IU welcomes its largest beginner nursing class ever this fall with about 450 students. The School of Nursing met its goal of increasing first-year enrollment by 50 percent one year ahead of schedule. The school welcomed its first group of direct-admit high schoolers with 68 students. After a $16 million gift from Indiana University Health, lab and learning spaces were updated.
Nursing students Riki Iwase and Syndey Schons both worked in short-staffed hospitals, seeing how nurses can be stretched thin. But, they agree nursing is the right path for them.
“When thinking about what I could do for a career for the rest of my life, there was no other better choice than nursing, where I could talk about fitness, health related things and also educate patients at the same time,” Iwase, a junior at IU, said.
Schons wanted a career that balanced science and caring. She said nursing is taking care of people on their worst days, but it also forces her to think on her toes.
The Indiana University School of Nursing’s enrollment is growing enrollment for undergraduate and graduate programs. More than 80 percent of IU nursing graduates stayed in Indiana, the university reported. (Courtesy of Indiana University)
“Knowing that I will have a job when I graduate is very relieving,” Schons said. “But it can be intimidating, knowing that we might be put in situations where we're going to have a lot of patients to take care of, and we might not always have all the staffing resources to handle that.”
Eads said most of her students are from Indiana, and they will probably stay in Indiana. She’s passionate about community outreach, working in local health screenings to build trust and catch chronic conditions early.
There’s a huge need for healthcare in Indiana, Eads said.
“When we think about the nursing shortage, we absolutely have to think numbers, but we also have to think people,” said Eads. “We are scientists and we care.”
Aubrey is our higher education reporter and a Report For America corps member. Contact her at aubmwrig@iu.edu or follow her on X @aubreymwright.
