Still fit at 40

Georgia Perimeter College, the first institution in the state to establish an associate degree in nursing program, has put 3,500 nurses into the health care work force. Since 2004, graduating classes have achieved a 100 percent pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination.

This year, faculty, students and alumni are taking time out to celebrate the 40th anniversary of GPC's nursing program, but there's no talk about resting on its laurels. At 40, the program is just getting its second wind.

There's plenty going on with the nursing program, which has grown from 56 students at the Clarkston campus in 1967 to about 200 students on campuses in Clarkston, Lawrenceville and Dunwoody.

"We just opened our new nursing clinical practice and simulation lab in Dunwoody, and in May we got our new Care-A-Van, a mobile clinical lab that we can take from campus to campus and out into the community to provide health care screenings. It will let us provide care to people who really need it and give our students a broader range of clinical experience," said Verna Rauschenberg, RN, MN, interim chair of nursing at Georgia Perimeter College.

In 2006, the nursing program received three key grants. A $1.5 million grant from the Department of Labor funded the new lab and additional faculty, which allowed the school to make its LPN-to-RN summer bridge program more flexible.

"Before [the grant], the bridge classes were during the day, which made it hard for LPNs to continue to work and go to school," said Brendalyn Browner, assistant department chair for nursing. "Last year, we were able to offer classes in the evenings and clinical experiences on the weekends, and it worked very well. Our LPN students are working adults with families and mortgages, so having a more flexible schedule makes such a difference to them."

A $250,000 Health Resources and Services Administration grant allowed the school to accept more nurses from disadvantaged economic backgrounds. An Intellectual Capital Partnership Program funded the Care-A-Van.

"It is wonderful to have the new lab space, a state-of-the-art smart classroom and the latest technology," Browner said.

When she started working in the GPC program 28 years ago, nurses still wore caps and students practiced giving immunizations to each other. There were no computers, no beepers and no cellphones.

"When they first put a computer on my desk, I told them they could put it there, but I wasn't going to use it," said Browner, with a laugh. "Now I can't live without it. If we're going to teach our students what nurses need to know today, we have to stay current as nursing educators."

Today, GPC students practice lab skills using three new patient simulators.

"The METI simulator uses a mixture of gases that allow it to breathe, have a pulse and respond to medications in a lifelike way," Browner said. "It's very real to the students, and scares them enough to remember not to make a mistake again."

Students also practice clinical skills in many area hospitals and on the Care-A-Van.

Despite more space and faculty members, the nursing program gets far more applicants (about 1,500) than the 200 slots it can accommodate. Due to the nursing faculty shortage, the program has five vacant teaching positions and no plans to greatly increase enrollment.

Instead, the faculty hopes to improve the program's graduation rate.

"Our attrition rate was 32 percent this year, and we want to improve on that," Rauschenberg said.

Many GPC nursing students are in their 30s and cope with families, jobs and child care expenses. While affordable tuition and scholarships make the program more accessible, "about a third of the students aren't successful, due to lack of money, family support or social stressors," she said.

"If they can just get through, nursing changes their lives forever. They can get well-paying jobs that make a difference to them and their children."

Rauschenberg is proud of the program's nursing tutorial lab — which helps students learn study skills — and a pre-nursing course that helps students understand the nursing process and the importance of critical thinking.

"Most of our students stay and work in this community and they are so well-received and sought after, because our program is rigorous, and they leave prepared to practice," Browner said.

Many alumni come back to GPC to mentor, tutor, give to scholarship funds and pin new graduates.

"We've seen a lot of changes over the years, but what still makes me proudest is the quality of our graduates," Rauschenberg said.