Nursing program shut down

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- It's a end of Mountain State University's nursing program. After monitoring a program's growing problems since 2004, a state nursing house unanimously voted Thursday to yank MSU's state accreditation as well as shutter a school of nursing. Those decisions take outcome Aug. 31. Senior nursing students scheduled to graduate this academic year will still be able to leave Mountain State with a state-accredited nursing grade as well as sit for a compulsory chartering examination to become registered nurses. Any alternative students in a nursing module must be contacted by MSU officials by March 12 to discuss transferring to a different school of nursing or pursuing an swap grade during MSU, pronounced members of a West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses. The termination of a nursing module noted a decisive end to months of uncertainty for MSU nursing students who feared which their years of work would be worthless if a program's accreditation were immediately withdrawn. "I can finally breathe," pronounced Jodie Harris, a comparison normal nursing student during a Beckley campus. "The house made a right decision," she said, wiping tears of service from her eyes. "I just wish to pass my boards, as well as become a nurse as well as not consider about this again." The nursing house -- which consists of Robin Walton, Judy Nystrom, Joyce Egnor, Mary Friel Fanning, Teresa Ritchie, L. Ann Bostic as well as Dr. Mary Farmer -- voted to completely repel MSU's accreditation after school administrators still could not provide a house with complete student annals some-more than a year after MSU was told sloppy bookkeeping was a chief concern. Of a six student annals a house randomly selected to review, two students' annals were incomplete, notwithstanding assurances from MSU staff which a paperwork was being dealt with, pronounced Laura Skidmore Rhodes, executive director of a state nursing board."We keep removing a same improvement plan from administrators, as well as I'm not really seeing a whole lot of results," house part of Egnor told MSU administrators. "You pronounced you've been planning to fix things since November 2010. It's almost reprehensible which some-more hasn't been done."MSU administrators were noticeably jarred by a board's strident condemnation of a school's failures. "We will gladly close down a nursing program, but give a students a chance," pronounced Roslyn Artis, executive vice president of MSU, breaking down into tears. "They are three months away from graduation. We are wrong, we have blown it as well as we will voluntarily take a module down. But these students deserve a chance to pass which test." The nursing house in conclusion concluded with a proposal by a trustees to protect current students months from graduation but pronounced which a eleventh-hour fixes from MSU administrators -- which enclosed firing longtime president Charles Polk in January as well as laying out a school improvement plan -- were not enough to convince state nursing officials which MSU's module was worth saving. "It is a shortcoming to protect a public, as well as when students consistently can't pass this exam, it tells us they might not be ready to take care of patients," pronounced house part of Ritchie. "This has been going upon as well as on. Every time we ask for a report, there's something else, there's an additional problem." Board members additionally expressed concerns about a low pass rates in MSU's various cohort programs. Low test scores were previously identified by state as well as local accrediting bodies as grounds for pulling a program's accreditation. Of a 237 students who took a nursing chartering examination in 2011, only 59 percent passed, according to Rhodes. The normal pass rate for West Virginia is 80.5 percent, pronounced Rhodes. At MSU's Martinsburg campus, a pass rate was 41 percent, as well as during a Beckley campus, a pass rate was 69 percent. The state nursing house placed MSU's nursing module upon provisional accreditation in November 2010, citing a school for a lack of administrative leadership, deficient learning opportunities, loss of national nursing accreditation, failing to make compulsory changes to course curriculum as well as failing to keep present student annals regarding classes as well as students' grade progress. MSU was informed in July 2010 which it had lost national accreditation for its nursing module and, in November, was denied nursing accreditation from an swap accrediting body for failing to residence deficiencies in a program. At a meeting in January, a nursing house voted to extend MSU's provisional accreditation status, but called a actions of MSU officials "inexcusable as well as defenseless." The headlines about Mountain State's state accreditation being withdrawn comes upon a heels of a visit by a Higher Learning Commission, a national accrediting body which provides Mountain State University with its primary accreditation, earlier this week. The HLC placed MSU upon "show cause" standing in a summer of 2011 for issues with governance as well as problems in a school of nursing.A five-member team of a HLC visited a Beckley campus this week to talk to faculty, staff, deans as well as students about leadership during a school as well as some of a ongoing problems which have previously been addressed by accrediting agencies.Reach Amy Julia Harris during amy.har...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-4814. Powered By iWebRSS.co.cc

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