The ceremony signifies the advancement of future nurses from the classroom to clinical rotation learning during the final four semesters of the undergraduate program, known as the upper division. Students recited the School of Nursing Honor Code Pledge and received a pin to wear on their scrubs that serves as a reminder of their commitment to provide high quality care.

“The most important person for a patient or for their families is the nurse,” UofL President Neeli Bendapudi said during the ceremony. “You are entering a noble profession.”

The cohort of students is one of the most diverse the school has seen, with 31 percent ethnic minority and 19 percent male, Dean Sonya Hardin said. Men account for only 9 percent of the national nursing workforce.

Guillermo Aguirre, one of the new upper division students, said he decided to become a nurse while he was on a military deployment in Iraq in 2011. One of his friends was injured by an explosion and a young medic kept him alive until they reached the medevac.

“A nurse can go anywhere in health care, but most importantly, they have the most interaction with patients,” Aguirre said. “I鈥檓 going to make a difference and help people.”

During the ceremony, Brittney Corniel, a labor and delivery nurse at UofL Hospital and alumna of the UofL School of Nursing, spoke about how her passion for nursing ignited during a hospital externship after her junior year.

She cared for a pregnant patient who had been in a car accident and had an emergency cesarean section, holding the woman鈥檚 hand and reassuring her that the staff would provide the best care in their power.听

A few hours later, the baby died.

“When everything settled down, the patient took me aside, thanked me for everything I had done, and said ‘you鈥檙e going to become an amazing nurse.’ In this moment, I realized this was a job I would be able to love on the bad days just as much as on the good days,” Corniel said. “As you all go through this program, you will have experiences like this. The School of Nursing will give you plenty of opportunities to serve others, and during that service, your passion for nursing will develop and lead you to what your purpose is.”

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U.S. nursing schools turned away about 64,000 qualified applicants in 2016, mostly because of an insufficient number of faculty. However, in response to the demand for more nurses in the workforce, the聽聽has increased its enrollment by 66 percent in the past five years through a creative solution to the faculty shortage.

From fall 2013 to fall 2017, applicants admitted to the UofL Bachelor of Science in Nursing program have increased from 60 to 100 students per semester, eliminating the need to turn away qualified candidates.

Driving student capacity issues at nursing schools is faculty retiring at a rapid rate. The average ages of doctorally-prepared nursing faculty holding the ranks of professor, associate professor and assistant professor were 62.2, 57.6, and 51.1 years respectively, according to the聽.

As more faculty retire and enrollment increases, the UofL School of Nursing has relied more on nurses employed full-time at health care agencies to work as part-time lecturers of clinical courses. Also, the school has reconfigured classrooms to expand clinical simulation lab space.

鈥淭he school works very hard to meet the workforce and student demands in the face of faculty shortages,鈥� said Ruth Staten, PhD, APRN-CS-NP, associate dean for academic programs and associate professor at the UofL School of Nursing. 鈥淎mazing nurses from the practice community help us provide an excellent education to our students.鈥�

In the past decade, UofL also has expanded its degree options for preparing new nurses. These include the Master鈥檚 Entry into Professional Nursing program, designed for people who want to transition to a career in nursing and already have a bachelor鈥檚 degree in a different field, and the only traditional nursing baccalaureate program based in Owensboro.

鈥淚n a given year, we are admitting 270 pre-licensure nursing students into our programs,鈥� Staten said.

Faculty and student services staff members will host separate information sessions on the traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program, RN-to-BSN online program and Master鈥檚 Entry into Professional Nursing (MEPN) second degree program from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Information sessions on the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs will take place from 7 to 8 p.m.

The open house will take place at the School of Nursing, 555 S. Floyd St. To register, .

The Bureau of Labor Statistics continues to rank nursing as one of the top two job growth areas. The registered nurse workforce is expected to grow from 2.71 million in 2012 to 3.24 million in 2022, cited by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The public seems well versed in this high demand workforce need as evidenced by our large pool of undergraduate students declaring nursing as an intended college major.

But numbers and/or quantity alone are not the sole variable driving this workforce demand. More importantly, it is the quality of registered nurses that help make some of the most strident contributions. One cannot dismiss the seminal research conducted by Dr. Linda Aiken from the University of Pennsylvania about the improved patient outcomes with less mortalities and complications under the care of a baccalaureate nursing workforce. Nor can we dismiss the accolades from our physician colleagues who know working at a hospital with nursing Magnet designation and a large BSN workforce ensures the highest level of nursing care, which optimizes outcomes while ensuring high levels of patient satisfaction.

Our current and future nursing workforce must be highly educated with the majority of nurses having a minimum of a bachelor鈥檚 degree 鈥�

In Kentucky, our numbers of registered nurses sound sufficient with 65,856 RNs, yet only 33 percent, or 22,006, hold a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. That puts our state near the bottom of the 50 states, ranking us 46th. Further, this number lags far behind the Institute of Medicine Future of Nursing recommendation to have an 80 percent BSN workforce by 2020. For schools and colleges of nursing, and for hospitals who continue to be the largest employers of nurses, that means we have only four years to jump another 47 percent to help reach the 80 percent national goal.

鈥� As educators and hospital administrators we must challenge, expect and reward every person who wants to be a nurse to earn the BSN. This degree will then afford a nurse an even stronger career outlook to further his or her professional journey to earn a master鈥檚 degree or eventually earn the clinical Doctor of Nursing Practice or research PhD.

Is it not time for Kentucky to lead the nation in this regard, rather than bringing up the rear? We are making strides, but must move faster. Let鈥檚 work together to achieve an 80 percent BSN workforce throughout Kentucky.