Nurses, in greater number and with advanced training, will be needed to meet health-care demands in Southwest Colorado, the dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Colorado said Tuesday in Durango.
Dean Sarah Thompson and Maureen Durkin, assistant dean for strategic development, are on a listening tour in the southern tier of counties. They were in Montezuma County on Monday, Durango and Pagosa Springs on Tuesday and in the San Luis Valley and beyond the rest of the week.
Thompson, who was a professor and associate dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Nebraska before taking her current post last August, had a lively conversation in Durango on Tuesday with a dozen health-care providers and others at the Strater Hotel.
Later, Thompson and Durkin visited the La Plata Community Clinic, the only safety-net health care in the region.
“We have a mission in all of Colorado,” Thompson said. “But we need to understand what each region requires.”
Thompson wants to see more nursing students from rural areas.
“My experience in Nebraska showed that we need to educate students where they live,” Thompson said. “It’s the only way to get them to stay and work in the community.”
The College of Nursing at CU has various programs on which to build partnerships, she said. The college has about 1,000 students in four undergraduate programs, nine specialties for nurse practitioners and two doctoral programs, she said.
The college also is trying to expand its research, Thompson said.
Thompson’s exchange with her audience covered the relative isolation of Southwest Colorado that leads to neglect, the need to create an image of nursing among junior high and high school students that goes beyond what is seen on television, efforts to train new nurses and keep veteran nurses working, the difficulty in competing with metropolitan areas for federal grants and a search for funding to pay for health-care scholarships.
Statistics reflect the topics discussed. When the Affordable Care Act takes effect next year, 160,000 more people will need access to health care in Colorado, and the state will need 3,000 new nurses a year for the next 20 years.
Only about 1,900 nurses graduate annually, but only half have a four-year degree, and mortality drops 50 percent in hospitals with nurses who have four-year degrees.
At the La Plata Community Clinic, Director Harriet Brandstetter told Thompson and Durkin that the center operates with volunteers. She currently has a dozen physicians and a single dentist.
The clinic opened in January, funded by seed money from the Karakin Foundation. The cost of service to patients is on a sliding scale that must be paid at the time of service. More than 400 patients have been seen.
Brandstetter and a part-time front-office person are the only paid staff members.
The clinic is writing grants and approaching the city of Durango and La Plata County for money to perhaps hire its own nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant or dentist, Brandstetter said.
daler@durangoherald.com
