New degree program opens opportunities for nursing students
CALEXICO — A new degree program to be offered at San Diego State University-Imperial Valley means nursing students can further their education and increase their opportunities closer to home.
The university announced Thursday the addition of a Master of Science program in Nursing Leadership in Healthcare Systems.
The new program will focus on evaluating nurses for leadership positions at all levels of healthcare organizations. It will have a specific aim to prepare leaders who will transform the future of healthcare care delivery. “For years, Imperial Valley students have been commuting to San Diego to continue their educational goals,” said Dr. Dorothy Zirkle, SDSU’s Nursing Leadership Healthcare Systems Concentration Chair. “This is a great step forward in growing the health and wellness leadership capacity in Imperial Valley.”
The application deadline for the master’s program is April 1. The framework for the course, which consists of 37 units over two years, will embrace the leadership, professionalism, relationship management, business principles and skills needed in the healthcare environment.
“So often, we have our students who major in different areas, nursing being one of them, who leave the Valley to get advanced degrees,” said Imperial Valley College Superintendent and President Dr. Victor Jaime. “What happens is we end up losing our best and our brightest, who are really committed to this Imperial Valley. They’re lured away, and they don’t come back.”
The IVC superintendent said he was excited about the new master’s program and that he believes it will help keep the kind of students needed in the community. Due to an increasing demand from hospitals to hire nurses with a higher level of education, SDSU-IV began to offer in July 2007 a Bachelor of Science in nursing to registered nurses.
Mark Anthony Carlos, 27, a student in that program scheduled to graduate in May, said he plans to apply to the new Nursing Leadership program.
“Having the MSN program is going to be a substantial, impactful imitative within healthcare here,” Carlos said. “We’re going to be doing more research and doing more healthcare initiatives and improving the systems we’re already have. I’m really excited about this program. I can’t wait to apply.”
Carlos said the new degree offering will help issues that he and other local students currently face in continuing their education. “After your bachelor’s program, if you want to continue to get a master’s program, you have to go outside the Valley,” he said. “You get invested in another community with the schools you go to, and you become a part of their research projects, so it’s sometimes hard to come back.”
The new MSN program will be the next step to address unmet higher education needs identified by SDSU-IV Dean Gregorio A. Ponce.
In December 2017, Ponce shared the university’s initiative, which was officially named Growing and Transforming for our Community.
“We should be about triple our size by now, given the size of Imperial County,” he said. “We’re now taking the first step of many of bringing new programs to SDSU-IV for the benefit of Imperial County. We are putting ideas into concrete actions by starting the MSN program in response to our initiative. Our initiative requires the support of our counterparts in San Diego and our partners in Imperial Valley. The MSN program exemplifies this collaborative effort.”
Attending Monday’s press conference in support of the new program were representatives from local agencies, including Imperial County Public Health Department, Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo, Inc., Accent Care, Alliance Healthcare Foundation, Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District, El Centro Regional Medical Center, Imperial Valley College, Imperial Valley Regional Occupational Program and Imperial County Office of Education.
The SDSU-IV dean said he hopes the announcement will generate even more support for the university’s ideas on better serving higher education needs within the county.
“We’re really trying to establish collaborative efforts with the San Diego campus and the local community to bring this university to the level it needs to be,” said Ponce, who also mentioned SDSU-IV is working on creating a master’s in public administration and a bachelor’s in interdisciplinary studies.
“SDSU-IV is a university, and it’s in the backyard of Imperial County, so for us to grow and meet the higher educational needs of our community, it’s the first step in making sure that our community starts growing and starts keeping its professionals for the long term,” Ponce said. “This is really exciting for us.”