Prairie State College sets a high bar for its nursing students, but the last class proved it could meet the challenge. All 32 of the Class of 2024 got a 100% pass rate on the national nursing exam after completing their associate’s degree in nursing.
Marie Hansel, acting director of the Department of Nursing, said, “Our students take the same exam” as every other future nurse. The National Council of Licensing Examination for Nursing is taken by every student whether they have a master’s degree, a bachelor’s degree but never practiced nursing, or an associate’s degree.
When the PSC graduates enter the job market, the average starting salary is $82,000 a year.
To be admitted to the PSC nursing program, students must submit their high school transcript and have completed 30 course hours in prerequisites, including English, math, communications, psychology, humanities or fine arts, microbiology, two semesters of anatomy and physiology. Grades in these courses determine the ranking system for admission.
Hansel said the students are majority females of color in their late 20s or early 30s who are a parent or a caregiver. Most are working. Some are licensed practical nurses (LPN) or certified nursing assistants (CNA).
For example, Mable Campbell was a CNA for 10 years before enrolling at PSC. Julissa Acosta was admitted to the program after graduating from Crete-Monee High School. She got her CNA license right after high school and has been working as needed.
child’s lungs in the PSC nursing simulation room.
(Marilyn Thomas/H-F Chronicle)
It was a doctor at St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights who pushed for a college-accredited nursing program rather than nursing school diplomas. He worked with Prairie State to initiate the program 60 years ago. The first classes met at the hospital.
Today, PSC’s two-year nursing program takes students through rigorous coursework over four semesters, as well as clinical experiences at hospitals or nursing homes, and each takes at least one turn through PSC’s own simulation lab that recreates a hospital room with mannequin “patients” who can be programmed to talk with nursing students.
“At clinical, it’s whatever comes in. In simulation, you can create hypotheticals and what you do in those situations. We get to pick and choose in simulation,” student Adejoke Adedigba said.
“We run them through scenarios,” said Danielle Coleman, professor and simulator, who graduated from the PSC nursing program 20 years ago. She and Shawna Miller, professor and simulator, teach in the lab where students get hands-on experience with one of six mannequin “patients” ranging in age from a newborn to an adult.
Coleman can program the mannequins to tell nurses about their ailments or needs and the nurses then assess and decide on how best to help the patient. The process is videotaped for assessment and feedback.
Coleman likes to keep the simulation class small – just five or six students – and each gets assigned a role, for example one can be the wound care nurse, another the primary nurse, another the medication nurse, and one is the documentation nurse.
“They have to give an assessment, examine the wound, check the vital signs” and other on-the-job tasks.
“They understand that all of those (jobs) are for one person in real life, but they get the small pieces, and they work together to take care of the patient in whatever amount of time we specify,” Coleman said.
She is watching from behind a two-way mirror and can manage the computer program and make adjustments to what the mannequin patient is asking for. Coleman said AI (artificial intelligence) allows her to give the patient an accent and carry on a full conversation with the nursing student.
Hansel said because the simulation lab is meant to recreate a hospital room, students encounter vomit, bowel movements, urination. For some students, it’s a rude awakening, but Hansel said that’s the point: Students should be ready for anything when they get a job.
“We have the sights and sounds and smell of a hospital. They’re noisy because of the monitoring going off, everything’s blinking” but the students “aren’t offended because (Coleman) has created the vomit, the stool, so they get used to it. It desensitizes them, so when we get them to a real situation with a real patient, then they can handle it much better,” Hansel said.
“That’s why I think they’re doing so well (passing exams), because they’re relaxed enough in this situation (at PSC) where they can question and explore.”
The program also prepares students for the licensure exam through mini quizzing after they studied a topic. It’s just another method of preparation.
The simulation lab “has gotten such positive feedback from graduate students that they are work-ready. And it’s fun,” Coleman said. “It’s understood this is the place to make mistakes, to ask questions. You might be right and if not, we can address it.”
Esmeralda Canchola took her last turn in the simulation lab in March. She’ll graduate from the nursing program in May. When she was a student at Thornton Fractional South High, she didn’t think she’d go to college, but “these last two years have proven me wrong. I know what I can do. I worked full-time the last two years. I’ve been able to balance work with school pretty well. That came as a surprise to me because I never thought it would.”
She’s been a CNA at Munster Community Hospital and as signed a contract to work as an emergency room nurse.