National Park College (NPC) is pursuing a change in scope to include a bachelor's degree to meet local workforce demand. The College is not requesting a change in its role as a locally supported community college. NPC does not seek to become a regional university. The College hopes to be allowed to remain a community college that provides baccalaureate programming to answer the economic needs and workforce demands of the City of Hot Springs, Garland County, and the surrounding region.
As part of an 18-month planning process to develop the 2020-23 NPC Strategic Plan, NPC reviewed the mission, vision, and values by conducting focused meetings with state legislators, local elected officials, public school leaders, parents, industry leaders, faculty, staff, and students. The feedback gathered demonstrated strong support for adding bachelor’s degrees, especially in nursing, healthcare, education, and business fields. Students have consistently asked the College to provide opportunities for achieving bachelor’s degrees in poll after poll over the last five years.
A priority of NPC’s current strategic plan is to “strengthen educational and workforce partnerships.” We want to provide relevant career opportunities for our students in support of our community partners. Hot Springs is a health care hub for much of the southern and southwestern portions of the state. Healthcare is the largest industry sector in Garland County and our region. Our hospital partners have expressed a need for BSN prepared nurses. Our job as a community college that has a publicly elected Board of Trustees and that receives public support from the community is to answer that call.
NPC’s Nursing programs are well-positioned to help close the gap for our local health care industry. The College is fully equipped and ready to sustain this added population of students in terms of faculty, staff, classrooms, technology, library resources, etc. The Frederick M. Dierks Center for Nursing and Health Sciences is a modern facility with a state-of-the-art simulation lab.
NPC would be required to develop 33 credit hours of nursing coursework to complete this bachelor’s degree and would likely need to hire at least two new faculty members. NPC employs 19 full-time nursing faculty teaching both the LPN and RN programs, 13 of which have a master's degree or higher. As a result, NPC is well-positioned to offer a bachelor's degree level program of study.
Registered Nursing enrollment numbers have gradually increased over the years. The following are admissions numbers since 2014, when we began our push to help alleviate the shortage of nurses here in Garland County. We have not turned away any qualified students to our RN program for the past several years. We increased our number of admissions from 40 to 85 qualified applicants. COVID-19 influenced admission numbers in 2020 and 2021. Admission letters were sent to 85 qualified students; however, some students chose to decline enrollment due to the pandemic. The applicant pool for 2022 is robust and a full cohort of 85 -90 students is expected.
*pending final spring grades to determine eligibility of admission.
| Category |
2018-2019 |
2019-2020 |
2020-2021 |
Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
AS Registered Nursing |
48 |
44 |
39 |
131 |
|
AS Registered Nursing LPN2RN* |
8 |
8 |
8 |
24 |
|
TC Practical Nursing |
36 |
24 |
29 |
89 |
|
TC Pre-Nursing |
56 |
61 |
112 |
229 |
|
Total |
148 |
137 |
188 |
473 |
*LPN-to-RN program is an educational path designed specifically for licensed practical nurses (LPNs) looking to further their education and career. Each year NPC sets aside slots in its ASN program for students that possess an LPN license. This three-semester completion allows students to obtain an ASN and take the NCLEX-RN and obtain an RN license.
Earning Power
Bachelor of Science (BSN) vs. Associate Degree (ADN):
(Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES))
- BSN holders earn 25% more annually than those with only an ADN
- Associate degree graduates earned less in 2020 than in 2010
- Bachelor’s degree earners earned nearly 40% more annually in 2020 than associate degree earners.
Offering the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) completion degree is based on the findings of the Institute of Medicine’s landmark report,The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health(2011), which identifies the need for nurses to have more education in order to handle greater responsibilities in an increasingly complex health care system. If the public institutions of the state do not increase the supply of BSN level-nurses, then hospitals will come to depend on private, out-of-state institutions to fill the gap resulting in economic resources being taken from Arkansas. The NPC Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) program is a timely and cost-effective educational strategy to increase the pipeline of registered nurses into the community and surrounding area.
An EMSI economic modeling analysis of job postings in the 50-mile radius of NPC indicated 47,177 unique job postings for registered nurses from September 2016 – May 2021, 5804 of which specifically required a BSN. The BSN programs at UAMS, UALR, and HSU produced nearly 400 graduates combined in 2019 whereas the labor demand in that region in 2019 was 3300 unique jobs. In January 2021, there were 3420 unique job postings for registered nurses with a median salary of $91,000.
Bullets from paragraph above:
- 47,177 unique job postings for RNs from Sept. 2016 to May 2021.
- 5,804 required a BSN
- Median salary of $91,000
- 3,420 unique RN job postings in Jan. 2021
- Universities in the region produced less than 400 BSN graduates in 2019 combined
While opponents may argue there is not enough demand for another BSN-level program in the state or region, this ESMI data demonstrates that the need exists in central Arkansas. In Garland County and the surrounding region, especially west and southwest of the county, there are a number of Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) and ASN qualified nurses who are place bound. Traveling beyond 40 miles to a university presents a hardship and high-speed bandwidth internet services are not common among rural families even if the services may be available via satellite or another provider. Having a BSN program at NPC will help meet the demand of many non-traditional, practicing nurses in the region seeking a bachelor’s degree. This degree offering will help them attain better pay and benefits, and it will assist in meeting the needs of our local hospitals who are continuing to navigate a shrinking nursing workforce.
This BSN would be a 33-credit hour, post licensure completion degree available to registered nurses.
Unlike other completion degrees in the area, which are fully online, NPC seeks to offer the program in a hybrid manner with face-to-face and some online instruction. The decision to pursue this style of instruction is based upon student preferences indicated in surveys of constituents, particularly those of students and hospital personnel. NPC's program will be unique because it includes a clinical component that is not typical for BSN completion programs, but amplifies the quality standards for nursing care that our graduates provide.
Our goal is to capture place-bound students who tend to pursue online degrees from out-of-state or private, for-profit universities. Adding a BSN to our degree offerings will make the ASN program more valuable and appealing for students and will increase the number of nurses in the ASN program. NPC has built the capacity to serve as many as 120 associate-level nursing students per cohort and only seeks a BSN program to serve 25.
We believe our program will not detract from other area BSN programs. Offering our program as a hybrid program will make it unique and not a duplicate of the nine existing online BSN programs offered by state universities.
NPC submitted a proposal to the Arkansas Division of Higher Education (ADHE) requesting a role and scope change. The ADHE Coordinating Board denied the request. ADHE Director Maria Markham indicated no appeal process was available.
We learned there is a process to appeal the Arkansas Division of Higher Education Coordinating Board’s decision. NPC submitted a letter of appeal for the role and scope change. We have an obligation to meet our community’s need, and we will persist in this effort.
We have compiled the following list of options, which we also plan to pursue.
- Submit letter of appeal
- Resubmit LOI
- Legislative action
- Executive endorsement
- Partnership
Timeline
- August 2021 - NPC Board of Trustees approved a resolution to investigate the feasibility of offering bachelor's degrees.
- November 2021 - NPC Curriculum and Assessment Committee approved an RN-to-BSN program following research and development by the NPC Nursing Division.
- December 2021 - NPC Board of Trustees approved the curriculum for the college's first bachelor's degree, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
- January 2022 - NPC submitted request for role and scope change to Arkansas Division of Higher Education.
- April 2022 - Arkansas Division of Higher Education Coordinating Board denied NPC’s request for role and scope change. View the recording.
- May 2022 - NPC submitted a letter of appeal to ADHE. View the letter.
Media Sources
May 25, 2022
- The Sentinel-Record: NPC appeals AHECB decision that derailed baccalaureate program
- Arkansas Democrat Gazette: College appeals denial of plan
May 12, 2022
- The Sentinel-Record: Inside the Newsroom: NPC's request for nursing baccalaureate rejected by ADHE
May 8, 2022
- The Sentinel-Record: WATCH: NPC to examine options to resubmit role/scope change request
May 5, 2022
- The Sentinel-Record: ADHE director addresses NPC denial
May 4, 2022
- Capitol & Scott: The future of nursing after the pandemic
April 30, 2022
- The Sentinel-Record: WATCH: ADHE Coordinating Board derails NPC’s four-year degree
- Arkansas Democrat Gazette: School’s nursing plan rejected; hospitals say community college program will fill need
December 5, 2021
- The Sentinel-Record: NPC OKs curriculum for first bachelor's degree
