LEWISTON, Idaho – The Idaho Board of Nursing has granted continued approval of Lewis-Clark State College’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program through 2027, the IBN has announced.
Susan Odom, interim executive director of the Idaho Board of Nursing, made a site visit to LCSC in April and recommended to the IBN board to grant approval of the program for another eight years. The board approved her recommendation.
To offer a nursing program in higher education in Idaho, the program must be accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing (CCN) and also approved by the Idaho Board of Nursing.
Krista Harwick, chair of the LCSC Nursing and Health Sciences Division, said an IBN representative visits the LCSC campus each year to meet with nursing students to discuss the process and testing necessary to become a licensed nurse in Idaho. In April, this meeting took place and was followed by the two-day site visit.
During the site visit, Odom met with LCSC students and faculty, reviewed the LC nursing program, and toured the LCSC library to check if students had enough resources and information available to them. She also examined the goals and outcomes of the program to see if they align. The IBN doesn’t mandate a curriculum but examines outcomes and critical resources.
LCSC’s highly respected nursing program has a pass rate for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) that annual exceeds the national average. Last year, the pass rate was around 96 percent and has been as high as 100 percent in the past few years.
“I regularly run into graduates who are working locally or receive an e-mail from them and they always talk about how their employers love LCSC graduates and want more of them,” Harwick said.
The LCSC nursing program will undergo an accreditation review by the CCN in 2020. Harwick said these reviews are great for the program because it shows what LCSC is doing right, but it also gives the staff the opportunity to review and reflect on all parts of the program and make any minor adjustments with the latest health care trends.
Projections by leading health care administrators say Idaho could face a shortage of registered nurses by 2025 if the state doesn’t retain at least 750 new nursing graduates per year.
To learn more about the LCSC nursing program, visit lcsc.edu/nursing.