University lifts nursing school requirement for time at IUPUI

Nursing students on the Bloomington campus will now be able to complete their degrees on their home campus. The Indiana Commission for Higher Education approved changes to IU's nursing program last week that will eliminate the requirement for students to complete their senior year at IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis.\nCurrent students can complete their first three years of study in Bloomington but must move to IUPUI for their senior year. Admitted freshmen this fall will be able to stay in Bloomington for their fourth year.\n"We have received repeated requests from students and their families that they be able to stay in Bloomington for their fourth year," Sharon Farley, executive associate dean of the IU School of Nursing, said in a press release. "Health care agencies are very anxious for this to happen because when students have a four-year affiliation with health care agencies and graduate from the Bloomington campus, they are more likely to stay and work at those agencies."\nThe School of Nursing has clinical contracts with a dozen health care agencies in the Bloomington-area. Lynn Devich, assistant professor of nursing, said she thinks the move will give hospitals in Bloomington a better chance to recruit IU students.\n"This change is great for Bloomington," Devich said. "We have a shortage of nurses in this area as does pretty much the whole nation. With us having the fourth year in Bloomington, it gives the hospital more of a chance to recruit the nurses that come out of our program. Also, the hospital will benefit from the fourth-year students being at the hospital."\nDevich said she hopes allowing students to stay will help recruitment efforts in the nursing program at the Bloomington campus.\n"Many students, especially out-of-state students, did not come to IU for nursing because they did not want to leave Bloomington and go to Indianapolis in the fourth year," she said.\nThe School of Nursing admits 50 students into its program after they complete their freshman year.