'An era of growth:' LIT makes way for proposed nursing program

The just under 52,000 square-foot, three-story building is set to be the "gateway" into the LIT campus from Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkway,  LIT President Sidney Valentine said Tuesday.

"Let's talk about this fantastic building that will be under roof by August of 2024, just in time for our inaugural nursing cohort," he said. "(This building will house) nursing skills and simulation labs, the pharmacy tech program, classrooms for allied health and workforce computer labs, large multipurpose classroom and an industry partners lab."

Additionally, Valentine said that Lamar University nursing students will be sharing LIT's simulation lab, "so that everybody can benefit from this new facility."

"Our goal is to design labs and learning spaces that are so immersive...that the workplace feels simply like accepting a new job," he said. "Students will leave here with the hands-on experiences that will put them a step ahead when they walk across the stage at commencement and begin their job search. I truly believe that the students who walk into the Workforce and Allied Health Training Center will walk out as highly qualified professionals who are prepared to fill regional jobs and be able to make an immediate impact on our community as a whole."

As was the case at Lamar State College Orange's recent groundbreaking last week, progress made by local higher education institutions was celebrated by each of its leaders, with Lamar University President Jaime Taylor, Lamar Orange President Tom Johnson and Lamar State College Port Arthur President Betty Reynard.

"We've gone through a long period of not being able to do some of the things (we) want to do," Reynard told The Enterprise Tuesday. "Now there is support and funding to do some of the things that we'd like to do to move the communities forward. So, I'm really excited about it because I think there is a lot of opportunity for growth and development -- we're excited about it."

The new center, funded by the 87th Texas Legislature for $37 million, goes hand-in-hand with the introduction of a proposed associate degree in nursing that the college has been working toward for the past some three years, said LIT Allied Health and Sciences Academic Department Chair Allen Welch.

"About 80% of this new building is slated for the associate degree in nursing program," he told The Enterprise Tuesday.

The regional -- and statewide -- shortage of registered nurses prompted the college to develop the program, said LIT Program Director of Nursing LeAnn Chisholm-Springer.

"According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, we'll have about 200,000 job openings for registered nurses through 2031," she said. "That's an increase of 9% from 2020's identified need. Texas alone is anticipated to have about 16,000 open RN positions annually by 2030, which is an increase of about 17.1%. With all the nursing programs we have in Texas, and we do have a lot...(we) can't meet the needs. There's an identified need and we need new nursing programs."

So, Springer and Welch worked to develop the associate degree in nursing program at LIT, which will allow students the ability to sit for the same registered nursing licensure exam as students who go through Lamar University's four-year bachelor's of science in nursing program.

LIT's program is in the proposal phase, Springer said. It has been approved by the Texas State University System Board of Regents and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board but still needs to be approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and the Texas Board of Nursing.

"In order to have a program, you need to have space for them," Springer said. "That required additional space and Lamar Institute of Technology chose to build another building. So, we're going to increase our ability to have nursing."

If everything goes according to plan, the college hopes to accept its first cohort of up to 30 nursing students by Fall 2024, right when the center is slated to open. The program would be the first associate degree in nursing program approved in Southeast Texas, Welch said.

"It was unique in that," he said. "Our executive team that was in place at that point in time were really the big drivers of it, saying, 'OK, we've heard the needs, can we do this?' Then we did a feasibility study (and) contacted our health care partners to (see) if it was possible because you can pop up nursing programs all over the place, but if there's not clinical space for them, if there's not job opportunities for them locally, then it's going to be a dead-end program."

Not only do officials believe the program isn't a dead end, it's is being developed with the future in mind, including telemedicine and other technological advancements to hopefully close rural health care gaps, Welch said.

Additionally, the program is designed to be more for flexible for non-traditional students, which are in abundance at LIT, Springer said.

"A lot of our students are working, they're supporting families, they may be (pursuing their) second career," she said. "Our program is going to be innovative and not traditional in the fact that it's going to exist outside of Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. We'll have evening, weekend and night clinicals -- whatever it takes to make it work for that student, because at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we have health care providers for Southeast Texas first and then beyond."

While students won't have to have a bachelor's degree to become registered nurses, the college's close proximity to Lamar University will allow for a smooth transition to the Lamar University Joanne Gay Dishman School of Nursing to continue their education. Lamar President Jaime Taylor told The Enterprise Tuesday that the university has an "RN to BSN" program that students can enroll in and work toward while working as practicing nurses.

"We support continuing education," Springer said. "One of the things about nursing is that nurses have to be lifelong learners. But for some students, they need to get through a little quicker."

One of the more exciting components of the new center is the simulation center, which will essentially function as a makeshift hospital of sorts and allow students to interact with all of the some 18 allied health sciences programs, such as radiology technology and respiratory therapy, among others, Springer said.

"We're going to do multidisciplinary simulations with all of our programs in this center," Welch said. "We get to teach how the communication between the different areas in allied health (works). We now can show these different disciplines (can) communicate with each other and have a better understanding of what (each) job is."

Building a program from the ground up, while a lot of work, has it's merits, Springer said.

"I'm excited about developing exactly what we want -- running the program, doing the simulations with all the different professions, building the program (and) including the important concepts of diversity and making sure that is all part of our program," she said. "Our mission is we want to provide clinically excellent and compassionate care."

olivia.malick@hearst.com