Page 3 - NRMC Today-Spring 2024

Supporting NSU’s Nursing Program
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’ssupportwillallowNSU
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 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. 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
NSU President Marcus Jones (on left) and CEO Kirk Soileau sign Memorandum of Understanding tosupportnursingprogramatNSU. AlsopicturedareDr.JoelHicks,DeanoftheCollegeofNursing&School of Allied Health; Ryan Todtenbier, NRMC Foundation Chairman and Tom Matuschka, NRMC VP of Business Development & Philanthropy.
are the kind of nurses we want to join our team, care for our patients, and serve our community,” noted Kirk Soileau, CEO of NRMC.
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 percentgraduationrate. Inadditiontoitsnursing 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.
“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.”
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