Delayed graduation seen

Nursing students at Northern Marianas College are likely to graduate one semester late, with the college canceling its only nursing class this summer due to a lack of instructor.

Lois Gage, chair of the NMC School of Nursing, said 26 students would not be able to graduate next spring because of the cancellation of the Maternal and Child Health Nursing class.

Nursing courses must be taken in sequence. Hence, any delay in the students’ completion of one class will affect the rest of the requirements.

Although the college has experienced extreme difficulty over the past two years in finding an instructor to teach the class, this is the first summer that the class will not be provided, Gage said.

She attributed the problem to the low salary rates being offered by the college for adjunct faculty. Part-time teachers, which are needed to teach the nursing class, are paid between $500 and $700 per credit hour, depending on the teacher’s educational background.

With the course having 8 credit hours, an instructor with a master’s degree would get paid a total of $5,600, while a teacher with a bachelor’s degree would receive $4,000.

However, Gage said the nursing class actually requires an instructor to be with the students not only 8 hours, but 36 hours.

“We have reached the point this summer where I can’t find anybody to teach the class for the salary offered. The instructors are asking for more than adjunct pay for what amounts to 32 hours a week in the hospital and four hours in class. $500 or $700 per credit hour just doesn’t compute very high,” Gage said.

“And I can understand them. They have an opportunity to travel or to go home to refresh and see families,” she added.

Gage said college president Antonio Deleon Guerrero and academic affairs dean Jack Sablan have already been informed of the situation, but not the NMC board of regents. “The issue is being handled on campus.”

She also said that the nursing department had wanted to receive instruction from the college administration by last Monday on whether or not to cancel the class. But there is nothing anyone could do at this point unless the college comes up with a bigger salary to offer the instructors.

“I tell the students that if I get a go even on the first day of class, we’ll go. But I know it just isn’t happening. Students need to make plans; [so do] instructors,” Gage said.

Summer classes at the college will begin on May 23.

NMC has a pending request for nearly $1 million in additional funding with the Babauta administration.

College president Antonio V. Deleon Guerrero said an additional funding of $984,845 would allow the nursing program to increase its enrollment and recruit international students into the program.

According to NMC’s proposal, $439,400 of the requested amount will go the hiring of five new instructors, which would allow the School of Nursing to accept 50 additional students.

The nursing school has a policy of limiting each class to 10 students per instructor.