Mennonite College of Nursing @ Illinois State University

Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area

McLean County Chamber of Commerce

Local Workforce Investment Boards (Illinois LWA 15 and 16)

Regional Healthcare Employers (long term care and medical centers)

Regional Colleges of Nursing (private, university, and community colleges)

Local Lenders

Local and State Representatives

Myra Gordon, Project Administrator

mgordon@ilprairiecf.org, 309-662-4477

Kelli Hill, Project Director

kmtille@ilstu.edu, 309-438-3437

Jennie Collings, Program Associate, Doctoral Program Grant, MCN,

Brief Project Synopsis: 

Representatives from the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation (IPCF) and Mennonite College of Nursing @ Illinois State University (MCN) began initial discussions of local nursing concerns in July 2006.  Findings from a 2004 report to the Illinois governor’s office cited regional root causes of a shortage of registered nurses including “leakage” of BSN graduates to other geographical areas, a shortage of nursing faculty, inefficient use of clinical facilities, and an acute shortage in long term care.  Using knowledge of the profession from nursing leaders and networking abilities of various partners, IPCF and MCN led the effort to develop and support regional solutions.  IPCF and MCN have also started educating philanthropic donors and others who are less familiar with nursing issues.

Some programs specifically addressing the local nursing shortage root causes are currently in place at MCN, and activities to support these programs and students in central Illinois are in the development phase.  In 2007, MCN began offering an accelerated sequence of the BSN program to address regional retention of non-traditional second degree students, efficient use of clinical space, and the need for expanded output of registered nurses.  MCN is also developing a doctoral nursing program (currently a collaborative program with the University of Iowa and the only doctoral nursing program in Illinois outside of the Chicago area) to address the nursing faculty shortage.  An overall college focus on aging will emphasize long term care.

Accelerated BSN students and doctoral students each have unique needs.  Support from a variety of partners to promote and enable diverse student participation from across the region is imperative.  Fostering these partnerships, continued education, and pooling of resources is crucial.  IPCF and MCN are ready to lead these efforts, and the formalization of the PIN of CI project enables the critical next step.

Project Goals and Objectives:

Our goals include increasing the regional retention of BSN graduates from the accelerated program, expanding the number of nurses by graduating students in one year, and making use of clinical facilities not previously utilized in summer months.  A second program will focus on growing the numbers of nursing faculty through increasing the number of doctoral students at MCN.  A focus on aging populations in both programs will bolster interest in long term care.  The ability to continue developing partnerships throughout the central Illinois region will be necessary to support the activities and students associated with these goals.