Dickinson State may drop bachelor’s degree for nursing

Tammy Buchholz, associate director of education for the North Dakota Board of Nursing, speaks during a board meeting on Aug. 22, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Nursing program administrators for Dickinson State University are looking at transitioning away from a four-year bachelor’s degree program to two-year degree programs.

The North Dakota Board of Nursing received an update Thursday on the status of the  Dickinson State University program that saw a mass resignation of faculty this summer.

Carey Haugen, one of the Mayville State University administrators who is helping to lead the Dickinson State program, said the plan is to look at transitioning to a licensed practical nurse program with a diploma and an associate degree in nursing.

Dickinson State currently offers two licensure-based programs: an associate in applied science for practical nursing, licensed practical nurse, or LPN, and a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Third- and fourth-year students in the bachelor’s of nursing program will be able to finish that degree.

Haugen said full-time and adjunct faculty have been hired to allow the Dickinson State nursing program to start as scheduled next week. While most of the classes will be taught in person, a few classes will be online.

Tuesday, at a Board of Nursing education committee meeting, Haugen and Collette Christoffers, another Mayville State nursing administrator, said there were 88 students enrolled in the DSU nursing program, though they said the number for first year students, 48, could be higher.

The enrollment figure is down from the 111 students the Board of Nursing said were affected when Dickinson State nursing faculty and the program administrator refused to sign the contracts they were offered for the upcoming academic year.

Haugen said some students transferred to other nursing programs but there were no students on waiting lists at other colleges.

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Haugen said some issues have been identified with how the Dickinson State program had been structured. One issue was having the nursing administrator also be a full-time instructor.

“There was no work time release to manage the programs. That was one issue that has been rectified,” Haugen said Thursday.

The Dickinson State nursing faculty resigned their positions in July. That was quickly followed by the resignation of Dickinson State President Stephen Easton .

In his resignation letter, Easton said he had tried to push faculty to make nursing a two-year program at the school.

“Despite my efforts to support Nursing faculty to motivate them to convert to a two-year RN program that could compete effectively with those at other schools and therefore keep DSU Nursing alive and well financially, I have failed miserably,” he wrote.

The North Dakota University System turned to Haugen and Christoffers to quickly rebuild the nursing faculty and keep the program alive.

It also named Ty Olson, executive director of the Dickinson State University Heritage Foundation, to serve as acting president until an interim president is named.

Tammy Buchholz, associate director for education , said Tuesday the Dickinson State program is maintaining accreditation status. “Nothing has changed,” she said.

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