BUTTE — Montana Tech’s nursing program recently announced it is celebrating the success of recent graduates.
According to Tech, several graduating classes have achieved a 100 percent pass rate for those students who are taking the test to get their license.
"I would like to help children. I feel like they are a very underserved population," says junior Caitlin Olson.
Olson is one of about 150 students in the Montana Tech nursing program. When she was just a teenager she was diagnosed with toxic shock syndrome, a rare life-threatening bacterial infection that landed her in the hospital.
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"I was in the hospital for a little over a week and that was a pretty eye-opening experience for me," says Olson.
After battling for her life in the hospital, Olson says it was the nurses who gave her excellent medical care and a new inspiration for her dream job.
"I feel like they were the most helpful in kind of keeping me healthy and sane and I wanted to take on the role as a nurse so that other kids don’t have to experience what I did and that I’ll be able to help them in a way that I feel like I didn’t get," says Olson.
According to Montana Tech’s director of nursing, the success of previous classes helps to bolster the confidence of current students like Olson as they make their way through the program.
"I think that it really helps the students know that the students before them were well prepared and were able to walk into that examination with confidence," says Montana Tech Director of Nursing Janet Coe.
Coe also attributes the success of the program to her instructors who recently collected an international award for their work in simulation education.
Montana Tech’s nursing program is the only institution in the state to receive the award from the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) for Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice through the Sherry Lesar School of Nursing.
Montana Tech's state-of-the-art facility was completed in 2022 and offers hands-on experiences for students in four simulation suites that emulate hospital settings, telehealth, and debriefing rooms that give nursing students preparation for real-world experiences.
"Definitely, nursing continues to be very much in demand," says Coe.
"There is a shortage of nurses so it's really important that we continue to produce nurses to fulfill those needs."
In a quiet examination room in the nursing school's 5000-foot facility, Olson and three other students gather around a patient named Mary, a mannequin that can simulate different health problems and respond to students when they ask it questions.
Olson says good morning to Mary and asks about her pain level before the team administers a basic procedure. Olson is still a year away from taking the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) but in the meantime, she is soaking up valuable experiences with her classmates.
"Everyone tells you how hard nursing school is and I really don’t think that’s an underestimation. I feel like it’s very challenging and it takes a lot of drive and persistence, but I feel like the faculty are really supportive and Tech is just the best," says Olson.
