NATCHITOCHES – Natchitoches Regional Medical Center, the NRMC Foundation, and Northwestern State University renewed a memorandum of understanding that supports the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program offerings in Natchitoches. Through the 5-year agreement, Natchitoches Regional Medical Center and the NRMC Foundation will fund two-thirds of a nursing faculty position and make clinical space available for student clinical learning.
NRMC’s support will allow NSU to admit an additional 10 nursing students each year over the next five years. Administrators say the agreement will help NRMC recruit and employ NSU nursing graduates within their service area and meet regional nursing shortage demands. As many as 30 percent of Louisiana’s nurses are projected to leave the profession over the next 10 years.
“We are grateful to Natchitoches Regional Medical Center and the NRMC Foundation for their continued support of NSU and the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program,” said NSU President Dr. Marcus Jones. “In addition to the faculty supported by NRMC through this affiliation, there are currently three other full-time faculty members on the Natchitoches campus who are supported by NSU or other sources.”
“We appreciate the outstanding nursing program NSU offers and want to help ensure more students have the opportunity to enter the nursing program over the next five years,” noted Kirk Soileau, CEO of NRMC. “There are so many excellent students who would like to become nurses and with the combined support of NRMC and the NRMC Foundation, more students at NSU will be able to do so. We know that anyone who completes the rigorous nursing program at NSU will be prepared to be outstanding caregivers. Those are the kind of nurses we want to join our team, care for our patients, and serve our community.”
Northwestern State’s nursing degree was the first baccalaureate program in Louisiana and is consistently ranked as one of the best in the country with an 80 percent graduation rate. In addition to its nursing campus in Shreveport, NSU offers clinicals in Natchitoches, Alexandria and Leesville.
NSU’s College of Nursing and School of Allied Health offers degree programs in nursing and radiologic science at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels, as well as post-baccalaureate and post-master’s certificate programs.
The NRMC Foundation was established in 1987 to support the hospital’s mission of providing a continuum of care from newborns to centenarians. Since its inception, the NRMC Foundation has provided financial assistance to students in the fields of nursing, radiology, laboratory sciences and pharmacology who have returned to work in the health care field at NRMC.
More information about NSU’s College of Nursing and School of Allied Health is available at https://www.nsula.edu/nursing/.
Information on Natchitoches Regional Medical Center is available at http://www.nrmchospital.org.
