Grant sustains nursing program

THE GORGE — Oregon Center for Nursing’s (OCN) RENEW project aims to address nursing staff shortages in across the state by granting nursing schools money for projects that could help retain teaching faculty.

Columbia Gorge Community College (CGCC) will use its $92,500 RENEW grant to train faculty on its freshly-remodeled simulation lab. Students will learn on sophisticated, newly-purchased mannequins.

But first, faculty will get released from some teaching duties to study the equipment, write new cases for students to use and attend specialized trainings — important, because CGCC’s simulation expert of 18 years just retired.

“There’s a big learning curve to it, because there’s a lot of new all the computers and all the technology has changed over the years,” said Janie Griffin, CGCC’s director of nursing and health occupations.

Faculty must have a master’s degree in nursing and two years’ experience in the field. With a high demand for nurses at hospitals and care facilities, people so qualified can work wherever they want. Some of CGCC’s faculty also work part-time or full-time as nurses.

“It’s hard to give up working directly with patients, but it’s also wonderful working with students,” Griffin said.

At CGCC, five full-time and three to four part-time staff can teach 30 students every year. Griffin said there’s little chance of the program expanding because clinical sites, where students can get real-world experience, are few. But realistic simulation hours on the new mannequins will help.

OCN’s job is “to try to understand the nursing workforce in the state of Oregon, so that all Oregonians can have a really well-trained, well-qualified, well-educated nurse whenever they need to, for as long as they need to, wherever they need to,” said Jana Bitton, the nonprofit’s executive director.  That’s because, right now, we don’t.

“There’s a real problem with shortages, not having the staff where we need them, especially in rural communities,” Bitton said. “So, there’s a limit on the number of people that we can accept and educate into our programs.’”

In 2023, lawmakers passed House Bill 3396. Among other things, HB3396 sent $5 million to OCN to address the shortage.

OCN is trying a new grant-giving model, tailored to each schools’ individual needs. More than 126 interviewees at every publicly-funded nursing school in Oregon had made clear each had different needs.

Out of the $5 million, OCN took enough to pay for administrating the program. The rest goes into two rounds of grant funding. In the first round, $2.8 million just awarded schools could ask for just about anything.

Will the legislature, however, fund projects like those in HB 3396 again?

“I don’t envy our elected officials right now. I feel very fortunate that they had the ability to invest in the nursing workforce when they had the ability to do so,” Bitton said. “I’m hoping that we can learn enough from this project so that ... we won’t need federal, we won’t need state funding to keep this going.”