FRCC hires first director of BSN program

FORT COLLINS — Front Range Community College has hired its first director of its first four-year degree program.

FRCC received legislative approval to add a four-year bachelor of science program in nursing. It has since hired Edith Matesic, DNP, to be the first director of the RN-to-BSN program. Classes in the program begin this fall.

Colorado is currently experiencing an annual shortage of at least 500 nurses with four-year BSN degrees — and this figure is expected to grow to a cumulative shortage of 4,500 nurses with BSNs by 2024. “Under Dr. Matesic’s leadership, our program will help ensure that Colorado has more of the highly-qualified health care providers it desperately needs,” Jean Runyon, vice president of FRCC’s Larimer Campus, said in a written statement.

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Matesic has more than 35 years of nursing experience, including 12 years of academic faculty experience. She has also spent more than 14 years in hospital nursing administration; nine years in direct patient care; two years as a nurse researcher; and public health experience.

She comes to FRCC from UC Health in Aurora, where she was a research nurse specialist. Prior to that, she was chief nursing officer for UCLA’s Community Academic Medical Center. In that role, she was responsible for the management of clinical and fiscal operations for the Department of Nursing Authority, and was responsible for more than 1,100 inpatient and outpatient nursing staff. She received the UCLA Director’s Award in recognition of her work.

“Many health care providers now require their nurses to have a bachelor’s degree,” said Matesic. “Our BSN completion option will allow more of our trained, skilled nurses to graduate and go directly into the workforce.”

“For too many years, prospective nurses have only had one option for a BSN: an expensive education at a university,” said Mark Longshore, chair of the nursing department at FRCC’s Larimer Campus. “By offering a BSN through Front Range Community College, our graduates — already respected for their patient care skills — will now be considered on equal footing with the university graduates for employment. That’s cost-effective quality.”