By Luciana Chavez Special to Merced College Recent efforts by Merced College to expand its capacity to train dedicated, quality nurses are starting to yield results. Doubling enrollment for the registered nurse (RN) program means the college now qualifies for more state money to pay for that expansion. Merced College passage rates on state certification exams for RN and licensed vocational nurses (LVN) have risen to historic highs. And enrollment and graduation numbers for the certified nursing assistant (CNA) program are soaring.

Securing More Grant Money

Merced College’s RN program must do its part to produce more nurses to help improve overall access to health care in this area. Paying for that growth has recently become easier. Since Merced County is a federally designated Registered Nursing Shortage Area, the college is eligible for state grants from the Song-Brown Healthcare Workforce Training Program. “The Song-Brown mission is to serve underserved communities with healthcare shortages,” RN Program Director Lauren Marson said. “Without this definition, we probably wouldn’t qualify for such high amounts of funding.” Merced College had received a $900,000 Song-Brown grant for the two-year cycle starting in 2022. But when the college went through accreditation in 2023, it was able to say that, starting in 2023-24, it would begin to accept more students by reviving a working agreement with Emanuel Hospital in Turlock to provide more clinical instructors and space. Working with Dignity Mercy Medical Center in Merced and now Emanuel, the college is in the process of doubling RN enrollment from 60 spots to 120 annually. Since growth is a criteria for the grant, the college was awarded a $1.38 million Song-Brown grant for the 2024-26 cycle. The money will pay for additional faculty at Emanuel, remediation hours, textbooks and new simulation mannequins. The college is also moving the allied health computer lab elsewhere on campus, and retrofitting that space to become a second skills lab.

Acing The NCLEX

Song-Brown funds also pay for academic interventions that help RN students prepare for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), the national certification exam for RN and LVN. As of April, the NCLEX pass rate for Merced College RN students was 96.5%, the school’s highest rate ever. LVN students also scored at a historically high rate of 93%. One thing that spurred the improvement was when Merced College abandoned multiple-choice exams in favor of exams with the scenario-based, problem-solving questions students find on the NCLEX. Juan Baez Lopez, 31, a Delhi native who graduated from the college’s LVN-to-RN Bridge program last month, praised the quality of training he received. “I think the way instructors prepare us, it really pushes us to improve our clinical judgment,” said Baez Lopez, who’s been an LVN at Livingston Community Health Center for seven years. “They put you through the fire and put out quality nurses.” Merced College nursing faculty are ecstatic about the results. “We now have more students taking a harder test, so we were concerned about our passage rates going down,” Allied Health and Public Safety Dean Valerie Albano said. “And then the rates went up. We figured, if we can prepare them in this way, they can pass this harder test and then do excellent work in the field. “We’re very proud of that. We were celebrating and high-fiving in the halls when we found out.”

CNA Numbers Soaring

The CNA Program is also growing, thanks in part to local high schools like Atwater, where a Merced College instructor teaches a CNA cohort on site. At others like Le Grand, Delhi and Merced, which operate medical academies to recruit students into healthcare pathways, students take dual enrollment CNA courses online. The CNA Program, which graduated 68 students in 2022-23, saw that number more than double to 149 In 2023-24. To continue growing, a next step would be offering cohorts at more high schools. Outreach has keyed this growth. “Anything I can be a part of on or off campus, I’m there selling the program,” said CNA Program Director Xochitl Tilley. Albano praised Tilley for also pushing students to register for graduation. “Going through the ceremony opens their eyes,” Tilley said. “They cross the stage and become a part of the nursing culture. It becomes real somehow. They realize, ‘I did it. Now I can do more.’” While recruiting students, counselors emphasize several things. First, that CNAs can start their careers at age 18. Also, they can take care of family members even if they don’t work in the field. While doing CNA training, students can figure out if they’re suited for healthcare work. And finally, those who complete their CNA certification are also more likely to continue training to become an LVN or RN. Current RN student Fong Moua, who graduated from the college’s CNA program in Spring 2020, is a successful case study of those forces at work. Moua, who worked as a diesel mechanic for 15 years before changing careers, earned his CNA degree to start logging clinical hours. At the time, he was waiting to hear back on his application to a physician’s assistant program. “It helped me build a foundation in basic patient care,” said Moua, 38. “If you already have those skills through CNA training, then you can focus more on developing RN skills when it’s time. You go into RN training a few steps ahead of people without that.” Merced College’s numbers should show continued improvement when the current expanded classes begin graduating in next year. LVN Program Director Claire Alvarez, a 38-year RN veteran, said the college’s future for producing quality nurses remains bright, because the intentions have not changed. “Anytime we’re working with a patient—in whichever nursing program we offer, and also in the other allied health disciplines like radiology and sonography—learning how to support the patients in their conditions and exercising preventative measures whenever we can is tremendously important wherever our students end up in life,” Alvarez said. “We train our RN, LVN and CNA students to take their place on the team. When we work well together, patients receive outstanding and safe care. That’s what matters.”