BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The Practical Nursing Program at North Florida Technical College set a record enrollment this year with 41 students out of 47 applications.
Instructors Becky McCord and Lynn Dickinson said they have been promoting the program to community groups over the past year, pointing to their program’s perfect passing rate on the state licensing exam and North Florida Technical College’s sixth ranking out of more than 160 practical nursing programs in Florida.
The rankings by NursingProcess.org took academic quality, first-time pass rates for the state licensing exam, and affordability into account when ranking the schools.
The practical nursing program at the college has been running around 20 students, and it is one instructor short. Meanwhile, McCord and Dickinson are keeping up with double their normal student load.
“I feel like word-of-mouth has really been powerful for our program,” Dickinson said. “Our graduates tell others they work with and their friends about their education here. The one-on-one instructor relationships they have with us and the experiences are so positive, and the pass rate is so high that they recommend us, and they just have been coming in droves.”
The two teachers said their program is known for building one-on-one relationships and fostering a caring atmosphere.
“We know who had a sick kid last night and who had a flat tire this morning on State Road 16,” said Dickinson. “We know whose grandma died and who’s going through a divorce. We care about their social wellbeing, their physical wellbeing, their mental health wellbeing and academic progress, everything.”
Most have kids and a job
McCord said that although high schoolers could join the program as dual-enrolled students, there are no secondary pupils at this time.
“We either have second-career or first-career adult students,” McCord said.
Dickinson added that many in the program are certified nursing assistants who want to upgrade their skills and earning potential to the next level.
“They see the nurses they work with at the facilities and want to be like them,” she said. “They see the nurses at the medication cart, and they want to get the high dollars. They want that career.”
McCord said that virtually all her students have children and need to support their families while they get through the program.
Few live in Bradford County
The pair said few of their students live in Bradford County. Most commute from Jacksonville, Live Oak, Lake City, Green Cove Springs, Gainesville, and other nearby communities.
Virtually all the students receive some financial aid, many from federal Pell grants and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act grants through Career Source. The Northeast Florida State Hospital in Macclenny sponsors two students.
Dickinson said nursing assistants help patients with activities of daily living like bathing and brushing teeth, “things that we would do every day for ourselves that they need help with, like feeding them if they’ve had a stroke. They change the beds. It’s personal care with non-invasive type procedures.”
LPNs may give medications, insert catheters and nasal gastric tubes, and initiate tracheostomies. They may also take vital signs and monitor patients but not push medications through IVs, hang blood, or administer chemotherapy.
With an additional certification, an LPN may start an IV but not administer medications through it.
Could make more than some RNs
The full-time program lasts 10 months, and students meet four days a week, while the part-time option, in which students attend class two days a week, lasts 18 months.
Dickinson added that the job market for LPNs has grown because of the shortage of registered nurses.
“Places like HCA (Hospital Corporation of America),” she said, “used to hire only RNs, but with the shortage of registered nurses, they are hiring LPNs to help with the shortage.”
Dickinson said her graduates work at HCA Florida Starke ER, UF Health Physicians, all the multi-specialty clinics in Gainesville, Lake City, and the surrounding area, and at long-term care facilities.
The two instructors said starting pay for LPNs ranges from $25 to $30 an hour, with the Department of Corrections paying the highest starting wages.
“They could make more as an LPN there than as an RN at a hospital,” McCord said of the state agency.
Dickinson added that Centurion of Florida LLP contracts with the corrections department to provide health services to inmates and that the contractor starts recruiting North Florida Technical students soon after they arrive for classes.
“The recruitment starts upon enrollment because they really want to hire our students,” Dickinson said. “Usually, most everyone has a job offer after a few months of even clinical, which means they go off campus two days a week in a facility like physicians’ offices and health departments, other places like that, and they’re already offered jobs.”
