Rapid City, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakota is currently experiencing a nursing shortage, and Dakota Wesleyan University has a new facility to help fill the need.
The college, along with Monument Health, unveiled the facility Tuesday in Rapid City.
Nursing students like this years class will be able to take in-person classes in this facility.
They’ll be able to take general classes online.
“I think the track of this program attracts students that are already in the community and looking for a change. Many of our students are non-traditional students, they already have jobs and children in the community and are committed to staying in the community.” Assistant Professor of Nursing Devin Constant Said
“I think that our program is preparing us very well for actually working as nurses. And the fact that we already work with Monument Health is making it so we kind of already know a lot about Monument and Monument knows about us.” Nursing Student Caitlin Hild
Students in the program will experience 10-hour clinical days, which will reduce the number of days it will take to complete the program.
“Primarily lecture and the other we do many of our lab skills like working on IV starts. Then we have our high fidelity simulation mannequin here as well. Where students can work on taking care of a patient without it being a real patient. And make mistakes and then can learn from those mistakes without actually harming a real person.” Constant Said
Each class will have just 24 students. They’ll be run by two professors and nursing professionals, with the goal of making the program more personal.
“They bring real-life experiences to the classroom and they also make it fun. I was nervous to come to nursing school because I thought it would be too hard. You know, you always hear how hard nursing school is and how competitive but honestly, we’re like a family and it’s just been such a welcoming and loving environment.” Hild Said
Next year’s class will begin in August and is still open if you want to pursue a degree in nursing. However, it is limited to 24 students and is already starting to fill up.
