Notre Dame of Maryland, Mount St. Mary's University partner to address nursing shortage
BALTIMORE — One in every four hospital nursing positions is vacant, according to the Maryland Hospital Association.
To address the nursing shortage, Notre Dame of Maryland University and Mount St. Mary's University are working together to train more nursing students and get them into the hospitals faster.
Tuesday morning, the presidents of Notre Dame of Maryland University and Mount St. Mary's University signed a memorandum of agreement establishing a collaborative degree program that addresses a critical need in our state.
"We are proud to partner with the Mount," NDMU President Dr. Marylou Yam said. "Let us savor the promise that this partnership has to offer the students that we serve and the state of Maryland."
The partnership allows Mount St. Mary's students in the Bachelor of Science in health science, pre-nursing track, to enroll in Notre Dame's accelerated, second-degree Bachelor of Science in nursing program once they graduate.
The 2022, state of Maryland's healthcare workforce report identified an insufficient nursing pipeline as one of the contributing factors to the critical staffing shortage in Maryland hospitals.
The report recommended removing barriers to healthcare education with programs like this one.
"We are also in this partnership meeting a real societal need," President of Mount St. Mary's University Timothy Trainer said. "As we know healthcare is really challenged in our country. We need more healthcare workers, particularly nurses."
Eligible Mount St. Mary's students can complete Notre Dame's ABSN program in just 15 months.
During that time, students learn key nursing concepts through coursework, and put their skills into practice using simulation labs –which are about as close to working on a real person as you can get.
"Working with mannequins that are able to breathe, blink, talk to us and it just gives us confidence before we go into the clinical experience," said April Boss, a junior in the ABSN program at NDMU.
ABSN students can start helping out in hospitals and gain real paid work experience as hospital techs while they're still in the program.
"A lot of our professors here really encourage us to get those in hospital jobs so I know April has already started as a tech and I start in May. A lot of our classmates have worked as techs," said Averee Radonovich, also a junior in the program.
The program is designed to prepare students to take the test for their nurse's license as soon as they complete it.
More information about the program is available on the Notre Dame of Maryland University website.