To combat a growing shortage of nurses and to allow students to receive degrees more quickly than they have been able to in the past, the OU College of Nursing program has expanded its online education courses to include a site in Glendale, California.

OU College of Nursing degrees can now be completed online in many areas of Oklahoma, as well as in southern California, Carole Kenner, OU College of Nursing Dean, said.

Nursing students who enroll in the school’s accelerated second degree BSN program, take all of their curriculum courses online through OU, and gain hands-on experience with a clinical partner, Kenner said.

The program’s newest clinical partner is Glendale Adventist Medical Center in Glendale, California. There is also another nursing partnership in San Diego.

Kenner said OU is part of a nationwide trend in which nursing schools find a clinical partner, like OU has done in Glendale, and combine the partners’ access to on-the-job experience with the school’s online education tools.

The College’s primary goal is to serve students in Oklahoma, but the school took advantage of available partnerships in California, Kenner said.

“We would have done the program wherever the clinical partner was,” she said. “First and foremost, we are wanting to provide for the state of Oklahoma.”

OU College of Nursing has established programs across Oklahoma, including cities like Lawton and Tulsa.

“The primary positive about the program is that it has allowed us to make nursing accessible in any corner of the state,” Kenner said.

Now with two out-of-state locations for clinical experience to accompany online courses, OU College of Nursing is already considering adding a third, but Kenner said she wants to maintain high quality programs and not expand too rapidly.

“The whole process of launching these programs has been a really good experience,” Kenner said. “The faculty has been able to develop their teaching styles and learn how to engage new learners.”

Kenner said faculty at the OU College of Nursing has been taught techniques for teaching online and has received instruction on how to use technology to their advantage in the classroom.

There are 247 students enrolled in the accelerated second degree BSN.

The push for more accelerated, online nursing courses is the result of a nationwide shortage of qualified nurses. A report released by Dr. Peter Buerhaus and the American Association of College Nurses projected that the United States will have a shortage of 500,000 registered nurses by 2025.