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3-semester LPN course begins at nurse examinations
By John Hinton
CLEMMONS/LEWISVILLE JOURNAL EDITOR
March 06, 2008 MOCKSVILLE
Twenty students have enrolled in a practical-nurse education program in Mocksville that Davidson County Community College established to address the state’s nursing shortage.
The three-semester program started Jan. 7 at the college’s Davie County campus. Jessica Stevens is teaching the course, which combines online and face-to-face instruction to prepare graduates for the exam to become licensed practical nurses.
The program focuses on preparing students to work in doctors’ offices and nursing homes where “there is a great need for LPNs,” Stevens said. “We are still meeting the nursing shortage.”
Statewide, there is a vacancy rate of 11 percent for licensed practical nurses, according to data from the N.C. Center for Nursing in Raleigh.
Registered nurses are trained to give medicine to patients and treat wounds and injuries. They help doctors examine and treat people, Stevens said. Some conduct medical tests.
Practical nurses also give injections, take vital signs, observe patients, and dress wounds. They help patients in eating, dressing, exercising and bathing, Stevens said. They work under the supervision of registered nurses, doctors and dentists.
They often record patients’ reactions to medications and treatments, and report the results to registered nurses or doctors.
Students are taking online courses to complete their lecture and discussion work, and they are completing clinical requirements during evenings and weekends in the Davie campus nursing lab, the college said in a news release.
Students train in the nursing lab equipped with patient-simulation models. The models can be programmed to change vital signs to simulate nursing care.
The program is the only online practical nursing program offered in North Carolina, Stevens said.
Stevens holds a master’s degree in nursing from UNC Greensboro and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Winston-Salem State University.
She recently worked with the Northwest Area Health Center of Wake Forest University’s School of Medicine as a coordinator for nursing education. A Mocksville resident, she worked for more than four years as a nursing faculty member at Forsyth Technical Community College.
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