Grant gives MATC nursing program a lift

$2.3 million will help double enrollment

Milwaukee Area Technical College will double enrollment in the college’s registered nursing program over the next three years and address the nursing shortage in Wisconsin under a $2.3 million grant from United Health Foundation, the organizations announced Thursday.

The three-year grant will help MATC increase the enrollment of the nursing program by 100 students beginning in the fall. The program currently enrolls 350 students.

The grant also will allow MATC to hire 16 new nursing instructors, support the recruitment of low-income students, assist students with placement services after graduation and allow the college to graduate an additional 100 students by the third year.

“I think it’s going to make the program a lot more robust, and I just think that students will be a lot more successful,” MATC President Vicki Martin said. “This will get a lot more students who are interested into the pipeline.”

MATC also will match the United Health Foundation grant to hire an associate dean for the nursing program in the School of Health Sciences and expand tutors, teaching assistants and other services for students.

Nancy Vrabec, dean of the MATC School of Health Sciences, said the goal is to maintain the outcomes of the nursing program, such as the 96% pass rate for students who take the NCLEX-RN licensure exam, while increasing the number of faculty and students.

“We’re really looking to keep the quality of the program and provide more graduate nurses for our community and the hospitals in our communities,” Vrabec said.

A 2014 research brief from the Wisconsin Public Policy Forum said by 2020 the state will need to grow the registered nurse workforce by 24%.

“It’s helping people live healthier lives and giving back to the community so we can take care of our children, our seniors and our family members,” Dustin Hinton, president and CEO of UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin, said of the partnership between United Health Foundation and MATC. “There’s a nursing shortage and we want to be a part of the community fix to help with that.”

In addition to the grant from United Health Foundation, MATC’s partnerships with Aurora Health Care, Ascension Health, Children’s Hospital and Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin will allow the college to add 36 additional clinical training sites for students.