Founded only seven years ago, the CSU Channel Islands Nursing Program partnership with Cottage Health has already made a big impact in the community.
Just ask Taylor Carson, a Santa Barbara resident who graduated from the program this year.
“The (nursing) program pushed me out of my comfort zone, challenged me and, most important, taught me how to be present with your patients,” she told Noozhawk
The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program in Goleta is a collaboration between Cottage Health and CSUCI. Hopeful of creating a program that would encourage new local nurses to stay and work in Santa Barbara County, the two organizations formed a satellite campus in Goleta where students complete their classwork and simulation labs.
Cottage Health was also seeking to achieve Magnet Recognition, which is an award given by the American Nurses’ Credentialing Center and requires the majority of nurses at a hospital to be BSN certified.
Carson, who has lived in Santa Barbara for 10 years, considers the community her “forever home” and was grateful to find a BSN program that especially prepared her to work in the county.
“The (Cottage Health and CSU Channel Islands) partnership was impressive because they’re truly investing in the future of nurses in Santa Barbara County,” she said.
The satellite campus is located near Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital. The 2½-year BSN program mirrors the nursing program at the CSU Channel Islands main campus in Camarillo.
Herb Geary, Cottage Health’s vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer, said the program is especially valuable because it is the only BSN program in Santa Barbara. Students do all their clinical work through Cottage Health, which allows them to get to know the institution very well.
After graduation, many students are hired at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, as well as at Goleta Valley and Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital.
“Everything they experience as a student and everything they experience clinically prepared them to work here (at Cottage),” Geary said.
Clinical rotations, in which students learn about the different areas of a hospital, include Medical-Surgical, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, and Mental Health and Psychology. Students also gain community health experience through working at clinics and in school districts.
“Nursing is building blocks,” explained Lynette Landry, chairwoman of Nursing and Health Sciences at CSU Channel Islands. “We start with the fundamentals and every semester gets more and more complex. The expectations are very high.”
Landry said well-rounded nursing school applicants are the most competitive, and said speaking another language, having previous medical experience as well as doing well in prerequisite coursework are all considered in the process.
Applicants with local ZIP codes are also given the highest priority, Geary said, to align with the program’s objective of teaching Santa Barbara nurses and hiring them in the community.
“Growing your own (nurses) makes a lot of sense because you’re educating your local community, and your community is committed to staying there and making the community better,” Landry said.
Each year, the program receives more than 100 applications for the 22 openings for new students.
Geary said the BSN program at Cottage Health complements Santa Barbara’s other impressive academic programs at UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College. The BSN degree also allows students to get a comprehensive education, Geary said, that combines nursing courses with a liberal arts education.
Carson graduated from UCSB, was a certified nursing assistant (CNA) and worked at Sansum Clinic before going to nursing school. She said the program’s small cohort of nursing students felt like a family, and she is excited to see where her nursing career takes her.
“The program has afforded me the experience that I couldn’t have found in another program,” she said. “Nursing school was really the vessel to put everything on track to what’s going to be the next couple years of my life and the rest of my career.”
— Noozhawk contributing writer Maura Fox can be reached at news@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, and connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.