INDIANAPOLIS — Ivy Tech Community College President Thomas J. Snyder has been named to chair the National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges Nursing and Allied Health Professions Workgroup.

He is joined on the group by Montana University System Deputy Commissioner John Cech, Arkansas Associate of Two-Year Colleges Executive Director Edward Franklin, New Jersey Council of Country Colleges President Lawrence Nepoli and American Association of Community Colleges Director of Health Professions Policy Roxanne Fulcher. National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges is an affiliated council of the AACC.

The importance of community colleges in preparing nurses and allied health professionals to meet the nation’s need is strong and growing. Community colleges already educate the majority of these essential health care workers and are vital to ensuring the quality and availability of health care. New laws and policies call for new academic and career pathways. This workgroup will examine such laws and policies as well as facilitate discussion among community colleges about how to strengthen the capacity of associate degree programs to supply their communities with high quality health care professionals.

Community colleges provide accessible, affordable education to millions of health care professionals in every state. Without associate degree program graduates, communities would face an immeasurable health care crisis, making patient care and safety virtually impossible.

“A small contingent of special interest groups is advocating that certain hospitals—those seeking to attain ‘nursing magnet’ status—restrict employment only to RNs with a bachelor’s degree in nursing (BSN),” Snyder said. “Their efforts would have catastrophic results not just for RNs holding an associate degree in nursing (ADN), but for our nation’s health care system as a whole. And this may result in increased health care costs.

“One of my greatest concerns is that their position is supported by claims that just aren’t true,” Snyder continued. “Those promoting the BSN as a necessary prerequisite to a nursing career infer that ADN-prepared RNs provide a diminished quality of care as compared to BSN-prepared RNs. However, evidence does not support these claims. Even a well-publicized study conducted in 2010 by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, found no causal relationship between the educational preparation of RNs and patient outcomes.

“Perhaps of equal concern is the fact that policy is not being driven by evidence. Patient care improves when more nurses care for fewer patients, yet focus is on RNs attaining a second undergraduate degree (BSN) that adds not a single new nurse to the workforce.”

Ivy Tech has nearly 2,000 students enrolled in its RN programs in any given term across the state. The school graduates 1,300 nurses a year, more than any school in the state of Indiana.