NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The hospital ward is set up, the medical equipment prepared and the patients — they're ready to be activated. 

 

All that the 3 North Nurses Station needs now is a class full of students.

 

It will have to wait a bit as the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts anticipates its first cohort of nursing students in fall 2024. But the MCLA Academic Wing in the old Doctor's Building — at what will soon again be North Adams Regional Hospital — has been prepared well in advance as the college launches its bachelor of science in nursing degree. 

 

President James Birge said the concept was first broached to him by then Berkshire Health Systems President and CEO David Phelps some years ago.

 

"My immediate response was, I think it's unlikely. I said, 'you know, let me see if we have any inquiries or any interest in it,'" he said. "And I came back to campus and found out that we get 200 inquiries a year. For nursing.  And we've never promoted that."

 

Those conversations lead to the development of a four-year nursing program and a ribbon cutting on Thursday in the new MCLA Health Sciences with officials including U.S. Rep. Richie Neal, who obtained a $620,000 federal earmark for the program. 

 

A nursing degree at a liberal arts institution isn't out of the ordinary, said Birge recently during an interview at the college with Associate Dean of Nursing Elizabeth Fiscella and Vice President of Academic Affairs Richard Glejzer.

 

There were a few things that convinced Birge it was worth the effort to invest in the program. First, MCLA is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges and about half its 29 members offer nursing programs.  Secondly, Phelps had told him "their best nurses were nurses that were educated at liberal arts institutions." 

 

Not a huge surprise, he said, "but I don't think for me anyway, I'd never really connected the two." 

 

Also, the college has a nearly brand-new science building and a health sciences program. 

 

And most importantly, he continued, it connected to "the historic public mission of higher education, which is to respond to the needs of communities. 

 

"Well, this is a need, this is a big need at about 200 open nursing positions right now throughout Berkshire County."

 

That number could grow with the announcement last month that BHS would be reopening North Adams Regional Hospital with up to 25 patient beds. At the time BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz estimated a 15 percent vacancy rate across all positions in the health care system and significant investments recruitment at all levels — including partnering with MCLA on its nursing program.  

 

The college has also received a two-year, $1 million grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

 

Fiscella said the college has received all the approvals it needs to implement the program and will apply to the national Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing once the first students are in their seats next fall. 

 

The program will be open to sophomores attending MCLA; this first year will be a "pre-nursing" program for first-years during which they will take courses designed to prepare them for nursing or other health/science fields. The college's bachelor's in health sciences, instituted a couple years ago, offers concentrations in certain therapies, sports medicine, medical technology and physician assistant. 

 

"We know from the experience of other institutions that that there are always a percentage of those students who start in in nursing and then realize fairly early on, 'social work or psychology is where I want to go,' and we want to make sure that we're there to be able to assist them," Glejzer said. 

 

Fiscella said there was some initial reticence from the science faculty, but now they've begun to offer courses up that they think might fit into the new curriculum. "They really did in the long run really embrace the nursing program," she said. 

 

The first nursing faculty member to join Fiscella is expected to hired this fall; when the first students enter the program next fall, they'll have an introductory course and then begin clinical work in the spring. As they move into their junior and senior years, more staff will be added and the curriculum will grown. The expectation is to have about 100 students within the next four years. 

 

They'll be working in the state-of-the-art 3 North Nurses Station, set up to function like a real ward. The patients are full mannequin simulations of an adult (who can be adapted by age and gender), at baby/toddler and a child. The mannequins can simulate all kinds of medical conditions for students to practice on while an instructor coordinates behind a two-way mirror. 

 

Across the hall, an Anatomage table, looking like something out Star Trek, offers a high resolution anatomical renderings down to the skeleton. It's already been in use by the radiology classes. The wing also has meeting rooms and classrooms and is just one floor up from the McCann Technical School's licensed practical nursing program. 

 

Fiscella said the college already has an informal partnership with the McCann and sharing lab space and sees more potential for sharing people and facilities, as well as with the Berkshire Community College associate's degree program. There's also potential for strengthening its partnership with BHS and Berkshire Medical Center.

 

"The hope is that they will sponsor a number of those students," Fiscella said, such as through scholarships or paying them for during their schooling and hiring them over summers and Christmas break.  

 

"It's similar to what they're doing with some BCC and McCann students, but they're really excited about the BSN students because that's really what they need," she said.

 

Having students see that they can find a career here, in the county, is an important factor in the program, they said. Fiscella, who's taught at the University of Massachusetts, said having the only registered nursing program in the far western part of the state is a plus in keeping people here. Otherwise, they'd have to drive an hour or more for their education.

 

"Students go to those areas and don't come back," she said. "So that's why it's I think so important that we finally have the program here. We had an open house recently with interested nursing students. We had students come all the way from Boston."

 

Birge said the college's enrollment is about 40 percent from the county but overall, about 50 percent of graduates stay in the area. 

 

He's also thinking bigger than a registered nursing program, including the possibility of a master's program. 

 

"My vision is that we have a whole suite of different programs, including partnership programs with Berkshire Community College, with community colleges from over in New York, that we have Advanced Nursing Practice programs. You know, nurse practitioner, CRNA," he said. "This is many years down the road, but I envision a suite of nursing programs. 

 

"But right now we're just focused on the four-year program because that's what's going get us established."