UTC's nursing program, recently rated as nearly perfect by its accrediting agency, is poised for major expansion in the coming school year, including the opening of the area's only doctoral program in nursing.
The launch of UTC's fourth doctoral degree will bump the college into a new classification with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools - Level 6, the same rank as the state's largest research universities.
"The quality of the nursing program is outstanding," said University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Provost Phil Oldham. "It has done exceptionally well, and this is a logical next step for it to have more impact on the state and region."
The move to start a doctoral program in the UTC College of Nursing is being driven, in part, by new standards set by the national Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, which will require all advanced practice nurses - nurse anesthetists and family nurse practitioners - to have a clinical doctorate beginning in 2015. Those nurses now are required only to have a master's degree.
"When the economy turns around, we are going to need more nurses than ever, specifically advanced practice nurses," said Kay Lindgren, director of the UTC school of nursing.
University of Tennessee trustees approved the creation of a UTC doctoral degree in nursing in June, and UTC now is waiting for the go-ahead from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission before it begins recruiting for the first class in January.
In the past year, as state colleges plan for some of the worst budget cuts in their history, lawmakers and state higher education officials have been wary about smaller regional colleges starting graduate programs.
UT and East Tennessee State University also are requesting doctoral programs in nursing.
Both UT system leaders and officials with the Tennessee Higher Education Commission have agreed that growth of graduate programs should be focused at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville if the school is going to climb into a spot as a top 25 university. Commission officials could not be reached to comment for this story.
Still, the UTC nursing program is expected to get a pass because of the new national accreditation standards that move advanced practice nursing from master's to doctoral level training.
"There has been so much support through the process. We feel fairly confident that the approval process will happen in July," said Dr. Lindgren.
U.S. Nursing education shortage80 percent of nursing schools could not admit more students86 percent had qualified applicants not admitted25 percent of nursing schools said they lacked qualified facultySource: Southern Regional Education Board
The new nursing program will also address an acute shortage of nursing professors needed if local schools are going to increase the training capacity for nursing students, officials said.
According to a report by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, nearly 50,000 qualified applicants for bachelor's and graduate nursing programs were turned away nationally because schools had insufficient faculty.
And the need is especially great in Southern states. A study by the Southern Regional Board of Education said there is a 12 percent shortfall in the number of nurse educators needed.
"Not only will we be producing practitioners for the medical field, we will also be supplying teaching faculty for other campuses," said Mary Tanner, dean of UTC's College of Health, Education and Professional Studies.
If the program opens in the spring, 15 students will be admitted in the inaugural class. The class will grow by five the next year and 20 in its third year, said Dr. Lindgren.
Along with launching the doctoral nursing program, UTC plans to grow its undergraduate programs as well.
This month, the school of nursing received $2.8 million in four federal grants to develop online programming, improve diversity and recruit traditional bachelor's of science in nursing graduates and public health nurses for North Georgia.
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