Texas Lutheran University (TLU), in partnership with Synergis Education, has officially opened a New Braunfels campus location at the Resolute Health Hospital Medical Office Building for its Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) degree track. Since officially beginning online in June, TLU has enrolled summer, fall, and spring cohorts for a total of 83 ABSN students to date.
The new campus location is physically connected to Resolute Health Hospital where TLU has a clinical partnership. The TLU-Resolute clinical partnership supports clinical experiences for nursing students in a variety of inpatient settings: medical surgical, telemetry, intensive care, emergency, and maternal services.
“We are thrilled to be able to build on our strategic partnership with Resolute Health and add a new campus location in New Braunfels for our ABSN students,” said TLU President Debbie Cottrell. “With the growing need for nurses in Texas and the continued population growth along the I-35 corridor, we believe we are uniquely positioned to help serve our region’s health care needs.”
Norm Allgood, CEO at Synergis Education, added, “Texas has been a top-tier market for health care programs. TLU’s commitment to addressing a tremendous market need, coupled with their entrepreneurial approach, provides New Braunfels, San Antonio, and Austin markets the opportunity to align a large pool of potential students with an ample number of clinical sites.”
Over the past several months, TLU and Synergis have dedicated resources to building out the top floor of the Resolute Health Hospital Medical Office Building to create a realistic and sophisticated clinical and classroom experience for its nursing students. The new facility features four simulation rooms with high-fidelity manikins including adults, a birthing mother and baby, an infant, and a pediatric manikin. The facility also features two, five-bed skills labs with mid-fidelity manikins for skills practice and low-to-mid-fidelity experiences, four classrooms, study rooms, and lounge areas.
“With the continued growing need for nurses in Texas and across the country, we made a decision a few years ago to expand our traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program to include an accelerated track,” said Dr. Cottrell. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 500,000 experienced nurses are expected to retire by 2022. These retiring baby boomer nurses, combined with an increase in baby boomers in the general population requiring more intensive medical care, plays a significant role in the ongoing shortage. To fill that void, the bureau projects a need for more than one million new nurses nationwide.
TLU’s Accelerated BSN track is intended for individuals who already hold a bachelor’s degree and are interested in making a career change to nursing. The program can be completed in as few as 16 months of full-time study and prepares students for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) to become a registered nurse. For more information about TLU’s ABSN, visit absn.tlu.edu. TLU’s traditional BSN program remains at the main campus in Seguin.