UA, Central Alabama Community College to Sign Partnership Agreement Oct. 21

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama is forming a partnership with Central Alabama Community College to provide a more convenient way for registered nurses to earn advanced degrees in nursing.

Central Alabama Community College President James Cornell will join UA interim President J. Barry Mason in signing a formal agreement outlining the arrangement in a 10:30 a.m. ceremony on Monday, Oct. 21, at the Childersburg campus’s Jim Preuitt Nursing and Allied Health Building, room 102. UA has already established similar arrangements with a number of other nursing programs in the state.

Dr. Jeanette VanderMeer, assistant professor in the UA Capstone College of Nursing and coordinator of the RN Mobility tracks, said the arrangements’ strengths include increased flexibility and improved communication. These agreements are designed to give nurses more flexibility in earning advanced degrees.

“This partnership with Central Alabama Community College will enable us to offer more options for nurses working in the Childersburg area who are interested in returning to school and continuing their education. The severe national nursing shortage has made it particularly challenging for nurses to arrange times away from their employment to attend class,” VanderMeer said.

Through the use of the Internet, e-mail and UA’s video based program, QUEST, nurses can complete the nursing courses in one year, without facing the restrictions of being in class on a specific time and day. Instead, RN students have the flexibility of choosing the best time to go on-line and attend class or watch a videotape of class. Required clinical activities are designed on an individual basis and efforts are made to arrange times and locations convenient to students.

Prior to beginning the upper division aspect of the curriculum, students complete UA core curriculum requirements, the majority of which can be completed at Central Alabama Community College.

The RN student with an associate degree will have already completed the majority of the lower division courses. The nursing courses not available at Central Alabama are offered at UA via distance education, so students have the option of earning their entire degree without ever setting foot on the UA campus.

UA has similar arrangements with the University of West Alabama in Livingston; Bevill Community College in Fayette and Jasper; Alabama Southern Community College in Monroeville; Wallace Community College in Dothan, Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa and Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham. UA’s Capstone College of Nursing also signed a partnership with St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham.

Coordination with the community colleges enables potential students and working nurses to have their questions answered in a familiar environment and bridges the gap between the University and the community college, VanderMeer said.

For more information, contact the UA Office of Nursing Student Services at 205/348-6639 or 1-800/313-3591 or the nursing department at Central Alabama Community College at 1-800-643-2657 or 256/378-5576.