ALLENDALE -- Cindy McClure talks about her nursing students with pride and adoration because she knows they will soon fill a growing need in the health care industry.
Rural hospitals, clinics and doctor's offices are continuously seeking quality nurses to tend to the needs of patients struggling with diabetes, hypertension and other major health problems that are chief among the population.
McClure said she hopes her new role as nursing coordinator at the University of South Carolina-Salkehatchie as part of an innovative pilot project will help the campus develop quality nurses through a program of its own. She came to the Allendale campus in March to oversee its evolving pre-nursing program and its partnership with the USC-Columbia College of Nursing for a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.
"No one in the state that we've ever known has done this in partnership with a mother university to offer a four-year degree, especially a nursing program, through a satellite campus," McClure said. "Students will be able to obtain their four-year degree on this campus."
USC-Lancaster was the second campus brought on to participate in the pilot project.
"I think USC-Lancaster will have 10 students coming on board this year, where we'll have 16," McClure said. "What happens is students are USC-Salk students for two years. They're then transferred to Columbia on paper, but once they're transferred, they then become a Columbia student. They pay Columbia tuition but physically remain here on Salk's campus."
The project is funded through a $450,000 grant from Blue Cross/Blue Shield and a $886,233 grant from the Duke Endowment in partnership with Allendale County Hospital.
"These were to help get everything initiated and on the ground. We're working on sustainability grants and on ways to sustain the program," McClure said, noting that the convenience of not having to travel to Columbia for a bachelor's degree is important for students from the primary service areas of Bamberg, Allendale, Barnwelll, Colleton and Hampton counties.
"They will have to occasionally travel for a clinical, but they will mainly remain here," she said. "It'll reduce the costs ... as far as their living and traveling expenses ... and then the tuition's going to be less because we're less expensive than Columbia.
"We want quality nurses. We're preparing quality nurses, and we grow our own. They're from here. The demand is here. That was one reason why we received the grant: the nursing shortage. We need them, and we want them to come back and work within the area."
USC-Salkehatchie, with campuses in both Allendale and Walterboro, previously did not have a nursing program. In fact, the fall of 2006 was the first time any pre-nursing courses were offered through the school.
"Since I came, we've pretty much sequenced the classes where the students can actually know what they're taking and when. Prior to that time, they didn't even know what to take," McClure said. "We're offering the program on both campuses. Right now, there's right over 200 students that have declared nursing as their major. They're all at different points and times, but the unique thing is we have the availability to offer the part-time status, where some people continue to work."
McClure said many students already have degrees, with many more other nontraditional students working full-time while pursuing a nursing degree at a slower pace.
"The first two years allow that flexibility," she said. "Once they become true upper-division students, then it's a full-time status at that point."
McClure is accompanied by a staff that includes an administrative assistant, two work-study nursing students and a myriad of adjunct faculty, which help teach nursing courses every semester.
"Every semester, I hire adjunct faculty, who are basically nursing practitioners like me who work another full-time job and help teach the six lower division nursing degree courses in the evening," she said. "I do have my eyes on hiring another full-time person to help out when the clinicals start. We'll start our clinical rotations in August. Right now, it's just me and some adjunct nursing interns."
McClure said there is a challenge in finding qualified nurse educators.
"The whole state and nation is battling because there's not enough nurse educators," said McClure, who began her nursing career at Colleton Regional Hospital. "You have to have at least a master's degree in nursing. So, we're looking for any support or help from anyone in the community. We've even been to (Sixth District Congressman and House Majority Whip Jim) Clyburn's office."
"Not only do we want to provide nurses here, we want to be able to plant that seed where we can bring more educators in to produce more nurses," she added. "We'd always appreciate any support in any means whatsoever. The hospitals have been very not only financially, but giving us supplies because we're in the process of establishing two clinical labs, one on each campus. That's a big process, but I didn't want the students to have to travel to go practice their clinical skills."
Distance education is used to provide instruction through the pilot project. McClure said live, interactive classrooms are key in the process.
"Most of the upper division courses will be offered through interactive classrooms, where the students can interact with a professor. She'll be in Columbia, the students will be here, and vice versa," she said, noting that the nursing program at USC-Salkehatchie will be just as competitive as any other program.
Although there are 200-plus students declared nursing majors at USC-Salkehatchie, McClure said only the 16 with the highest GPAs will advance to upper division each fall.
"We have very intelligent students here, and they really have to have strong backgrounds in their sciences and nursing courses to be able to get in," she said, stressing that she has found her niche in working with the students on the smaller, more rural campuses.
"I was born and bred here, so that's why I feel like I'm pretty attached to a lot of these students," McClure said. "I pretty much followed the similar path that they did. I work one-on-one a lot with the students. I know them like my own children. At a larger school, you lose that relationship because they're like, 'Okay, they're advised and gone.'
"I'm available here and have an open-door policy. I had been in private practice for 15 years and decided to come back to teach. These students want to be here, and being a role model and mentor to them is what I enjoy doing."
For more information on the BSN program at USC-Salkehatchie, visit http://uscsalkehatchie.sc.edu or call toll-free 1-800-922-5500.
T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.