FRCC issues first four-year nursing degrees

WESTMINSTER — Front Range Community College, with campuses in Westminster, Brighton, Longmont and Fort Collins, is awarding its first bachelor’s degrees in the school’s 52-year history. These are also the first four-year degrees in nursing from any school in the Colorado Community College System. FRCC began offering its new BSN degree program following a legislative decision in 2018 to permit the community college — normally a two-year degree institution — to offer bachelor degrees in nursing because of a statewide shortage of degreed nurses.

“FRCC’s new program is helping to meet a growing need for skilled health-care providers in Colorado by building on our 50-year history of outstanding nursing education,” President Andy Dorsey said in a written statement. “It also provides students an affordable route to good jobs in their home state.”

Josie Moszynski, director of patient services–acute care at UCHealth Broomfield Hospital, said nurses with BSNs have a different knowledge base from having access to additional training including critical thinking skills. “Not only can this help lead to higher quality care provided to patients, but it guides nurses to successful lifelong careers. FRCC’s program is helping us meet the health care needs of the communities we serve now and in the future,” she said. 

Colorado is 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, FRCC said.

The Class of 2020 is a small one — with just two graduates. They include a nurse who is currently the director of nursing at a rehabilitation hospital and a nurse at Denver Health Medical Center.

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