Montana State University Northern established the College of Health Science

Montana State University-Northern has a new dean for a new college.

Kelly Amtmann started at Northern about two weeks ago as dean of Northern’s new College of Health Sciences that offers degrees in nursing as well as health and science promotion.

She said the increased programs will help the university respond to a growing need.

“Every nursing school in the nation has a waiting list for registered nurses,” Amtmann said.

The college has been created in response to the demand for nurses on the Hi-Line. The state received a federal grant five years ago specifically to observe the current needs in the state’s health care system. Northern was 1 out of 15 colleges in the state that was seen as playing a critical role in serving the Hi-Line, said Northern Provost Neil Moisey, Ph.D.

All across the country there is a shortage of nurses in the health care profession and Northern wanted to “respond to this in a big way,” Moisey said. “Let’s do this in a way where we can maintain and build the quality of the programs we have.”

Moisey said the university wanted to make nursing a signature program on the campus, as it had been in the past. With health promotion and nursing growing, it allowed the university to focus on the program and what it needed. The program is rebuilding the relationships with the tribal colleges on the Hi-Line, Moisey added, and the university is working in collaboration with their nursing programs, as well as working alongside local health care providers to assure the growth of the program.

Amtmann said that the College of Health Sciences is fostering an environment for growth, making sure that the tribal colleges have all the resources to continue with their respective nursing programs and the students are college ready.

Amtmann added that one of her main goals for the new college is that anyone who wants to enter the field will be able to.

“All the (people) who we serve at Northern can become nurses if they want to,” she said.

Amtmann said she she wants to focus on increasing the number of high school students interested in nursing.

She said it is important that the community at large understands the critical role nurses play in the health of the nation. The shortage of nurses in recent years is projected to get worse, adding that it is important nurses have the education to provide safe health care.

Amtmann’s goals for the college is to develop the programs, she said, the continuation and growth of the registered nursing programs and the growth of the bachelor’s health promotion.

One of the ways Amtmann and Moisey said they plan to develop the college while facilitating growth is improving and implementing an online nursing program, ESN-RN. This program is available for nontraditional students who have already accomplished their associate degrees in nursing.

The Associate Degree of Nursing Science, ASN-RN, is an entry-level degree allowing practice across the entire nation after passing licensure. Moisey said that the ASN-RN degree is fairly quick to complete, only five semesters, and many students will begin working in their field once completing the associate degree program. The ESN-RN program will allow students with their ASN-RN to be able to re-enroll into classes to pursue and complete the bachelor’s program while still being able to work.

“It’s amazing when you hear anecdotally on what a change it makes to people’s lives,” Moisey said.

Amtmann added that the ESN-RN is an “excellent way to deliver an education to rural areas.”

The college will also be accepting credits from other colleges across the nation, allowing students to move forward with their education.

“Our goal here at Northern is to have 100 percent of our ASN students to move on and receive their bachelor’s degree,” Amtmann said.

Phase One of the plans for the college, she said, will also help accommodate more students who want to enroll in the nursing program, increasing the enrollment of students who wish to complete the ASN-RN degree.

The college is working to hire three new faculty members this year, she said. The university has faculty, adjuncts and clinical faculty members contracted to work at the college, and the addition of other positions, Amtmann said, she hopes will drive enrollment.

Although one of the biggest difficulties with finding qualified faculty members is that colleges compete with the industry and that there is a lot of competition when regarding hiring registered nurses that have completed a master’s or their doctorate.

Amtmann said she wants to thank Janice Starr and Arlys Williams for their work in the past years. She added that the nursing program would not be what is is today, or it might not be here at all, without their hard work after 2015.

In 2015 Northern had a low pass rate on the standardized test for nurses, Amtmann said. She added that this happens in all nursing programs and that without Starr and Williams’ work, the program might not now exist.

Amtmann added that she also wanted to thank Mary Pappas, who had recently retired from MSU-N, and was the interim director of the Nursing Department until Amtmann came on.

The college is currently fully accredited by ACEN, an outside credentialing body that assures excellence in the ASN-RN and BSN degrees.

Amtmann, originally from Butte, is an alumni of Carroll College, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1988. She continued her education in Gonzaga University graduating with a master’s in nursing, with her being in one of the first classes for the program at Gonzaga, obtaining an advanced practice registered nurse, which is a mid-level provider.

Since then she has taught nursing at Butte’s university, now Montana Technological University. She has almost completed her doctorate from University of Montana in Missoula and will be graduating in August of 2019.

Moisy said, “(Amtmann) really understands the dynamics of nursing in a rural state like Montana.”