Nursing School Programs

Nurseweek and Nursing Spectrum recently honored ten outstanding nurse heroes. These are nurses who risked their lives to help others. During car accidents, storms, terrorist attacks, and other disasters which would send many people fleeing to safety, these nurse heroes remained calm and helped those in need. The Nurse Heroes are recognized every year in December, as an appreciation of their efforts and an inspiration to nurses everywhere.

Of course, everyday nurses are heroes too. And nurses risk their health and safety on a regular basis by working with patients who have communicable diseases, or who may be violent or aggressive, under the influence of drugs, or otherwise pose a danger to those around them.

As you prepare for nursing school, be sure to click on the link above to be inspired by the heroism of these nurses, and know that one day you too will be an everyday hero.

According to a press release on PR Newswire, nursing students looking for scholarships in North Carolina have a great opportunity coming up. Approximately 400 scholarship awards to both undergraduate and graduate nursing students are expected to be made this year through the North Carolina Nurse Scholars Program. And these nursing scholarships are quite generous; they’re in the range of $3,000 to $6,000, depending on a number of factors.

All recipients must be legal residents of North Carolina, and the scholarhips require the recipients to practice nursing for a certain period of time in North Carolina after graduating. Grades are a criterion, but financial need is not. Click here for more information about these great nursing scholarships.

But the deadline to apply is Feb. 28. What are you waiting for? And if you’re not from North Carolina, here are some more general resources to help you pay for nursing school.

The State of California seems to have come up with a novel way to lure registered nurses to their state - improve the work environment for nurses.

In 2004, a law was passed in California regulating the patient-nurse ratio - the law limits the amount of patients that can be assigned to each nurse. This seems so obvious, it’s astounding that every state in the country does not already have this as a law, but many don’t. Of course, when a nurse is assigned too many patients, the patients health and safety is at risk, the nurse’s stress level and job dissatisfaction rises, and the turnover rate of the nursing staff is much higher.

This means that the nurses with experience leave, which means patients are going to be cared for by less-experienced nurses.

But since this law passed in California, 80,000 new registered nurses have come to work there. Other states which are struggling with nursing shortages should take heed.