Eastern Nursing Program Expands To Include McAlester Campus
(Press Release 10-16-07)
Hank Mooney, Office of Public Information

Eastern Oklahoma State College has been granted approval from accrediting agencies to offer the nursing program on the McAlester campus increasing its graduates to near 70 this spring.

Eastern’s nursing division has received approval from the Oklahoma Board of Nursing, National League of Nursing and the State Regents for Higher Education to offer nursing classes at the McAlester branch campus.

Fifteen of the 69 sophomore level nursing students enrolled at Eastern are currently taking classes at the McAlester campus, making it the largest class to graduate in the program since the program began in 1974.

Throughout the last few years the program has averaged 45 graduates a year in the two-year registered nurse program.

After students complete the course work they have to pass the National Council Licensure Exam before they can practice as a registered nurse. Historically, the number of Eastern students passing the exam average above the 90 percent pass rate. Oklahoma overall pass rate is near 86 percent of students taking the exam with a national percentage rate of 87 percent.

Eastern’s RN program offers a licensed practical nurse (LPN) to registered nurse transitional program as well.

Expansion in the nursing program of fifty students per year is made possible through funding obtained from a $1.78 million dollar community based job training grant the program received last year from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The existing lab space at the McAlester Branch Campus is being equipped with simulation manikins and technology to assist the students care for patients with a variety of conditions.  The simulation manikins are programmed by instructors through computers to mimic patient scenarios commonly found in clinical settings.

As students care for the manikins in the scenarios, such conditions as heart rate, blood pressure, breath sounds and EKG status on the manikins also change.  One of the manikins can be used to simulate labor and delivery and prenatal care. 

Students and faculty have recently been equipped with personal digital assistant devices (palm pilots) and software equivalent to four textbooks.  They will be used in clinical areas to retrieve data on lab values, common treatment plans, drug resource material and a medical dictionary.  The students utilize a fully equipped state of the art classroom with distance learning capabilities. The McAlester students share instruction through distance learning with two other classes offered at Eastern’s Wilburton and Idabel sites.

The Department of Labor grant has also allowed Eastern to hire four additional faculty members to meet the expansion needs of the program.  Two sophomore nursing faculty, Maye Durant and Christy Stanfield are nursing instructors permanently assigned to the McAlester Campus.

Wendy Hubbard, nursing program director, says extending nursing classes to the McAlester campus will strengthen the alliances in the clinical areas and offer an opportunity to serve the McAlester community.

“Students in the McAlester area will save money on travel expenses,” Hubbard said.

“The McAlester students are planning to participate in an area wide mass immunization program sponsored by local and state department of health and Gear-Up Health Fair in the near future.”

Vic Woods, McAlester campus dean, says both years of the nursing program will be available at the McAlester campus by 2009.

“We hope the complete nursing program will be available by the fall semester of 2008 if we can,” he said. “We should have the entire program by 2009.

“This will allow nursing students in the McAlester area to complete the entire nursing program at one site.”

For additional information contact the McAlester campus at 918.426.5272 or the Wilburton nursing division at 918.465.1796 or visit the Eastern web site at www.eosc.edu.