Creighton nursing program helps battle nursing shortage in central Nebraska

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) – Creighton University hosted its nursing program’s graduation and traditional pinning ceremony Wednesday morning. Although the school is located in Omaha, the commencement took place in Grand Island.

Sixteen nursing students graduated at the Riverside Golf Club. The students were involved with Creighton’s Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.

The reason for the ceremony taking place in Grand Island is thanks to the ‘3+1′ dual-degree program, which allows students to spend three years at Concordia University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Wayne State College, Hastings College or York University. The student must have an undergraduate degree in a different major to be in the program.

Jamie Hofferber is a Lexington native and will be going to Cozad to work inside the emergency room. For Hofferber, the program helped her improve her skills.

“I have been a medical assistant, a certified medical assistant for 12 years and have been in the health care field for a long time,” Hofferber said. ” I wanted to expand my scope practice, and the accelerated program did that for me. I am from central Nebraska, so I think becoming a nurse to take care of central Nebraskans is going to be a dream come true.”

The medical field has its challenges, but Hofferber has inspiration from the family tree.

“I think the end goal is doing this for my sons,” Hofferber said. “I am a single mom to two boys and doing that for them and becoming a nurse to take care of people in central Nebraska.”

Since the nation is suffering from a nursing shortage, faculty chair member Joely Goodman says this program keeps talented individuals in Nebraska.

“Out of the 16 who graduated, more than half are staying in Central Nebraska for employment,” Goodman said. “There have been jobs that have been accepted in Cozad, Kearney, Grand Island, Hastings and Lincoln. We have had a really nice distribution of where students wanted to work for their first job after graduating.”

Goodman says that Thursday’s class of graduates is a little larger than other classes, which average about 12. Since the program ends with CHI Health St. Francis, it is an incentive to keep local graduates in the state.

“The program here is a great fit and benefit of this area of the state because many of the graduates are sticking around and filling the much needed vacancies at area hospitals,” Goodman said.

According to the Nebraska Center for Nursing, the state will experience a workforce shortage of nurses by more than 5,000 in 2025. Kiley Grzywa is the vice president of patient care at CHI Health St. Francis and says having graduates from the program has helped the facility’s foundation grow.

“We are so blessed to have a program like Creighton’s program here in Grand Island, as it really allows local students to get a high quality program and allows them to stay close to home,” Grzywa said. “It is really beneficial and the success of that program as it is a really intensive program for them we really want to support them in having that family aspect.”

In fact, some of the current nurses at the hospital came from the program and see a new group of nurses every year.

“Over the last couple years, we have really seen the Creighton program blossom here in Grand Island,” Grzywa said. “We have had a number of students, and some of our local employees choose this program and decide to stay with us, which is exciting to watch them grow and become professional nurses.”

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