(August 11, 2021) – Even as North Carolina tries to catch up with its nursing shortage, it’s seeing changes in how nurses are trained, which nurses are most in demand and where they are needed. For starters, the mannequins used to simulate real patients have transformed nursing education over the past 10 years. The mannequins… READ MORE
Nursing Heroes: The Singing Nurse
WINSTON-SALEM (August 6, 2021) – Educators teach nurses how to calm nervous patients. Sometimes instinct does the rest. That’s what happened March 10 at a pop-up Novant Health COVID vaccine clinic at St. Peter’s Church and World Outreach Center in Winston-Salem. Vergie Hart’s prayers and her children convinced her she needed to be vaccinated. But… READ MORE
Nurses for rural North Carolina
(Aug. 4, 2021) – Big urban hospitals’ demand for nurses seems obvious. But what’s less obvious is the need for nurses in North Carolina’s rural communities. “You find that our graduates are more likely to be in those places that are sometimes hardest to fill, in terms of those nursing positions,” Dr. Scott Ralls, President… READ MORE
Stith: Nurses for rural communities
RALEIGH (August 4, 2021) – Local hospitals. Rehab centers. Assisted-living homes. They all need trained nurses, particularly in North Carolina’s rural areas. And the state’s community colleges can supply those nurses. “In 2020 alone, the North Carolina Community College System produced over 47% of the nurses that graduated in the state,” Thomas Stith III, President… READ MORE
Nursing Heroes: Toward the fire
GREENSBORO (July 30, 2021) – We’ve heard stories about firefighters who run toward the fire rather than away from it. Well three UNC Greensboro nursing students did just that at the height of the coronavirus pandemic last year. In the accompanying video, UNCG Associate Dean of Nursing Heidi Krowchuk tells the stories of three graduate students… READ MORE
Nurses: ‘Burnout is serious’
CHAPEL HILL (July 28, 2021) – Nurses were already in short supply two years ago. Add a global pandemic unlike anything seen in a century, with long hours and, for some, repeated patient deaths, and nurses’ stresses only mounted. That had dramatic costs in both human and financial terms. “Burnout is serious,” Dr. Cheryl Jones,… READ MORE
Nursing Heroes: ‘That nurse’
GREENSBORO (July 23, 2021) – She is “that nurse” – the nurse with the sleeve of tattoos screening patients for COVID-19 outside UNC Hospitals whose photo went viral in March 2020. She is also Grace Cindric, a 2016 graduate of UNC Greensboro’s School of Nursing. And she is “one of our alums – a nurse… READ MORE
The nursing faculty bottleneck
RALEIGH (July 21, 2021) – There’s no shortage of people who want to be nurses. And there’s no shortage of people who want to hire them. The shortage is a shortage of instructors – largely because they can make more money being a nurse than teaching students how to nurse. “When you can make more… READ MORE
‘We have to compete’ for nursing faculty
GREENSBORO (July 21, 2021) – Hiring and keeping nursing faculty isn’t a challenge just at community colleges. “One of the things that vexes us is that while there’s great student demand for spots in nursing schools, the supply of nursing faculty is actually quite constricted,” UNC Greensboro Chancellor Franklin Gilliam says in the accompanying video…. READ MORE
Nursing Heroes: ‘The Mother Teresa of Durham’
CHAPEL HILL (July 16, 2021) – So very many factors influence wellness – and Dr. Sharon Elliott-Bynum embraced them all. In the accompanying video, Dr. Cheryl Giscombe, a Professor in the School of Nursing at UNC Chapel Hill, describes the community health center Elliott-Bynum built – and built and built and built – until she… READ MORE