65 registered nursing students to showcase research to public, employers
Butler County Community College registered nursing students from eight Western Pennsylvania counties will present to employers and the public their findings about 14 health care topics Friday, Dec. 6, on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township.
Sixty-five students who expect to graduate in May from the two-year Nursing, R.N., career program at BC3’s main campus will discuss their evidence-based practice research from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the lobby of the 25,000-square-foot Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building.
Presentations in BC3’s 17-month-old state-of-the-art facility are part of the college’s 70-credit selective-admissions program and are free and open to the public.
Health care topics will include prevention methods for reducing anxiety in children for medical procedures, the effects of hypnotherapy during labor, and pediatric obesity.
Employers “are going to walk around and they are going to want to see what type of speakers the students are,” said Dr. Jessica Bronder, director of nursing in BC3’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health. “All students are required to speak during their presentations. We realize this is the first big project they may have had in which they have to speak before people. We want to see them think outside the box and not just use a poster or read from a paper.”
Students began to research topics in September, Bronder said.
“The main purpose is to determine whether there was a problem in health care,” Bronder said, “and what has been done to fix it.”
The “systematic approach to problem-solving” may appeal to employers, Bronder said, “because it takes the clinical experience mixed with critical-thinking skills, appropriate and efficient research, proper documentation and intertwines everything together.”
Additional topics include how pet therapy can improve mental health, the correlation between acrylic fingernails and increased incidence of infection, and safety issues for medical-surgical patients because of alarm fatigue.
“A lot of nurses and aides get alarm fatigue because they’re desensitized,” Bronder said. “Depending on the type of unit they are working on, they will be hearing alarms go off 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Each alarm typically means something different.
“The problem arises if someone turns alarm volume down or off, and then forgets to turn the alarm back on. Patients can have devastating side effects or die.”
Bronder said students have completed about 450 hours of clinical experiences in their first three semesters at facilities such as Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh; Allegheny Valley Hospital, Natrona Heights; Armstrong Center for Medicine and Health, Kittanning; Independence Health System’s Butler Memorial Hospital; and Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, Butler Township.
They will complete an additional 126 hours of clinical experiences in the spring.
BC3 also created a Nursing, R.N., program in 2018 at its additional location of BC3 @ Brockway in Jefferson County.
BC3’s main campus Class of 2025 in registered nursing could include 13 current licensed practical nurses, seven students who participated in Concordia Lutheran Ministries’ tuition assistance program and four who attend Grove City College, Bronder said.
Students are residents of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Clarion, Fayette, Mercer and Westmoreland counties in Western Pennsylvania; Lehigh County in eastern Pennsylvania; and Ocean Grove, N.J., according to Bronder.
Grove City College students in their sophomore and junior years pursue 41 credits in nine technical and clinical courses through BC3 while also taking classes in Grove City College’s Charles Jr. and Betty Johnson School of Nursing.
BC3’s practical nursing program is the only one in Butler County. Eleven students expecting to represent the college’s third consecutive class of graduates will receive pins Tuesday, Dec. 10, for completing the 48- to 49-credit certificate program.
Registered nurse, licensed practical nurse and licensed vocational nurse are high-priority occupations in Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Mercer, Washington and Westmoreland counties, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry. High-priority occupations, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry, are job categories that are in demand by employers, have evolving skill needs and are likely to provide family-sustaining wages.
Students in BC3’s career programs, such as registered nursing, and in the college’s certificate programs, such as practical nursing, can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation.
Additional information about BC3’s selective-admissions health care programs can be found at bc3.edu/healthcare.
Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.
