New Loveland hospital a draw for growing workforce
When Medical Center of the Rockies opens Wednesday, it will have filled hundreds of nursing positions.
Officials are bracing to have to do it again soon, however, because industry trends show that a large number of nurses will be retiring in 10 years.
The average age of the nurses at Medical Center of the Rockies is about 42, said Candy Pruett, interim human resources director for the hospital. The national average age of a nurse is 45 years old, she said.
Front Range Community College, the University of Northern Colorado and Aims Community College all have nursing programs. But there is a one- to three-year wait to get into Front Range’s program, said Marty Bachman, chairwoman of the school’s nursing department.
When the college first accepted nursing students more than 20 years ago, it accepted 35 a year. This year, Front Range has 210 students, she said.
“It’s not tapering off anytime soon,” Bachman said. “With the growing age of baby boomers, there is a projected increase in demand for nurses.”
Classes are in short supply, which is part of the reason for the nursing shortage, said Bachman. She said Front Range typically offers classes at the college’s Harmony campus in southwest Fort Collins. But lately the college has expanded classes to the Loveland area.
“We have trouble finding instructors and don’t have enough classroom space,” she said.
Lack of classroom space is not the only reason for the shortage, Bachman said.
After nurses complete their classroom work, they will begin interning at hospitals and long-term-care facilities in Northern Colorado, said Bachman. Each can take only so many nursing students, she said, so even if the college increased the number of instructors and classrooms, there would still be a backlog in the nursing program.
The requirements to teach at a college also are daunting, she said.
Instructors are required to have a master’s degree, said Bachman, but a nurse at a hospital with a master’s degree will make far more money than he or she would as an instructor, she said.
“We have jobs posted right now for a master’s prep nurse, and the pay for a nine-month contract is $40,000,” said Bachman.
Medical Center of the Rockies hires nurses of all backgrounds, said Pruett. Regardless of whether nurses have a two- or four-year degree, the hospital encourages them to further their education, Pruett said.
“We have a philosophy of learning,” she said.
Pruett said the hospital has scholarships for nurses who want to further their education.
Melanie Jaramillo of Fort Collins said she’s always wanted to go into nursing. At 34, she’s working on a second career after first having worked as a social caseworker.
“I had a tickle that I wanted to do nursing,” she said.
She said she had to wait “only” a year and a half before she could enter the nursing program, because she already had a bachelor’s degree.
“It’s very time-consuming,” Jaramillo said. “I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn’t know it was going to be this hard,” she said of the course work.
Randy Sims, 49, said he is studying nursing to add onto his current career as a mental health counselor.
“There’s a bigger demand for nursing” in his profession, he said.
Pruett said she enjoys having nurses on staff who are fresh out of school.
“The energy of the new nurses coming in raises the energy of nurses who have been doing it for so long,” she said.
Of the 674 staff members currently at Medical Center of the Rockies, 318 are nurses. The numbers will change as the hospital hires more people, said spokeswoman Sonja Wulff.
Pruett said hospitals also want nurses with very specific experience, such as in intensive care or cardiac care.
Drawing nurses to Northern Colorado is not difficult, she said.
“The energy of a new hospital and the Northern Colorado area makes recruiting a little bit easier,” she said.
Those in other medical professions are significantly harder to find, Pruett said.
Amy Watson of Mead is a radiologic technologist. She attended Aims Community College in Greeley to get her two-year degree. She said she waited about a year before she got into the program.
“I figured people are always going to be sick. It’s a good field to get into,” she said. “You’ll always have a job, and you’ll be helping people out.”
In her training, she worked at several hospitals but enjoyed the atmosphere of Poudre Valley Hospital the most. She liked rotating between the hospitals.
“It’s nice because every hospital does things differently,” Watson said.
In Jaramillo’s and Sims’ class at Front Range Community College, about 90 percent of the students likely will pass the exam given to all nurses, said John Feeley, spokesman for the college.
Many of them will remain in the area, said Bachman. She said the staff recently toured the new hospital and saw Front Range grads on every floor.
“One girl was so happy to see us she had tears in her eyes,” she said.
Originally published Feb. 12, 2007.