Welcome Back to Class!!

Happy Fall!
I can't believe it is September and classes are in full swing again. The Practical Nursing students are busy in class and the Associate Degree Students are busy starting IV's and getting ready for clinical. They were able to meet with several Democrats yesterday and expressed their concerns over healthcare and nursing wages in the state of Iowa. It was a great learning experience and exposure to political action.
The new nursing curriculum is progessing slowly, but the faculty is well aware of how much work they have ahead of them and we are confident everything will be ready by the fall of 2010.
We have full classes this fall and look forward to hard working, attentive students throughout this school year.
Bridget

Summer Fun

It is hard to believe summer is here and we are all ready preparing for the fall classes. There are very few students in the halls at the Emmetsburg campus, but we just finished orientation for pre-nursing and nursing students admitted to the fall programs. They are all very excited and eager to jump into learning, or at least they appeared that way. The evening/weekend classes are going strong and have started clinical on the weekends, both PN and ADN. Today, the first group of ADN students were off to Sioux Falls for their Pediatric experience and we hope they have some good stories to tell when they return. The nursing faculty has continued to be very busy with the new curriculum revisions. Some of the faculty are off for the summer all ready, so offices are dark, but there is usually 1 or more faculty on campus to help the students with anything that arises. Hope everyone has a great summer and we look forward to new students in all programs in the fall.

Spring Update

Happy Spring!! We finally have some beautiful weather and the school year is winding down. The PN and ADN students have 1-2 weeks left of classroom and clinical work. Many of them will be taking classes over the summer in preparation for next year or in finishing up their PN requirements. The nursing faculty is just beginning to wind up for all the summer work. We recived word from the Iowa Board of Nursing earlier this year, that they had approved our changes for the new curriculum to go into effect Fall 2010. And Tuesday evening, the Iowa Lakes Community College Board of Directors approved our changes. So we are busy working on new classes, new labs and new clinical experiences. It is very exciting and alot of hard work. We feel this new curriculum will be a big benefit to our students, not only will they go through one application process for the ADN program, but we can assist them in choosing the right program that fits their abilities.
Stay tuned for more updates as the process continues! Have a great Spring and Summer.
Bridget

Nursing at the Capitol!

Hello and welcome to the nursing blog for Iowa Lakes Community College. I am very exicted to be starting this blog and to journal about the happenings in the nursing program. The Associate Degree Nursing students just returned from a day at the Capitol. It was exciting and a great way for the students to get involved politically. Many of the students had an opportunity to discuss their concerns with Senator Jack Kibbie and with Representative Marcy Frevert one on one. The legislators were thrilled to see 45 students from Iowa Lakes and posed for many pictures. I will try to post some later. The students concerns ranged from the large difference in pay between Iowa and boarding states and what is being done about it, to low reimbursement rates for Medicare in Iowa and the nursing shortages state wide. We also learned about how the Iowa Nurses Assocation is involved politically and what new things they are working on for the upcoming year. The Practical Nursing students are busy finishing up labs and will be starting clinical very soon. Some have all ready started, so this is a busy time of year for everyone in nursing. The Dimension students will be finishing up their preceptorships, which have been a great learning experience for the students, preceptors and instructors at Iowa Lakes. I hope this gives you a different perspective on nursing and spurns your interest for more information. Feel free to e-mail at any time with questions and I will talk to you again soon.