This grant supports the efforts of Bladen Community College to continue to improve the education and training of nursing students, resulting in higher retention, completion, and NCLEX pass rates. The college is working to enhance access and learning for nursing students by consolidating the nursing program components, which are currently spread among five campus buildings into one building. The program is at capacity with 70 nursing student slots approved by the NC Board of Nursing. Golden LEAF dollars will be used for computers, charging carts and renovations to provide dedicated and expanded access to technology for remediation in health sciences and preparation for changes to adaptive testing methods for the licensure exam. In fall 2019, the college increased the pathways that can lead to an associate degree in nursing having added LPN-to-RN and paramedic-to-RN pathways and two RIBN (Regionally Increasing Baccalaureate Nurses) students who will continue to BSN studies through UNC-Pembroke. The new pathways and next phase of improvements position the program to successfully request an expansion of the program in the future.
