Arizona College of Nursing, a for-profit school, plans to open campuses in Milwaukee and Madison

The Arizona College of Nursing, a for-profit institution, is on track to open two Wisconsin campuses: the first in Milwaukee by spring 2024 and a second in Madison by spring 2025.

The college still has a handful of administrative hurdles to cross before its programs are fully approved in the state. But, so far, the Wisconsin Board of Nursing has given the green light for the school to administer its accelerated program for a three-year bachelor of science in nursing.

By 2040, more than 1 in 4 registered nurse positions in Wisconsin could go unfilled, according to a 2022 projection report.

Although Wisconsin is home to more than 40 in-state nursing programs, just one other — Rasmussen University — is a for-profit. Others, whether private or public, are nonprofits. Despite those options, more than 1,000 qualified applicants for BSN programs in Wisconsin are denied admission annually.

School faces opposition

The potential new school is facing opposition by the Committee for Equity in Nursing Education, which includes representatives from Milwaukee chapters of the National Black Nurses Association, National Association of Hispanic Nurses and NAACP. Two people have filed complaints with the Wisconsin Educational Approval Program as of mid December.

In the committee’s online petition, educators and health care professionals point to a 2022 lawsuit in Texas brought by a group of Arizona College of Nursing students accusing the school of fraud, breach of contract and deceptive trade practices.

For-profit schools are more likely than nonprofits to enroll students whose parents did not attended college, as well as Black and Latino students, according to a 2022 Federal Reserve survey. For-profits are also more likely to put students at a "greater financial risk,” because students are more likely to take out loans, default on those loans, and struggle to find employment with their degrees, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. 

The Wisconsin Board of Nursing did not respond to an emailed request for comment regarding concerns about the quality of the Arizona College of Nursing program. The Arizona College of Nursing also did not respond to request for comment via email.

In 2022, 65% of Arizona College of Nursing students completed the program

The Arizona College of Nursing is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education and the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools. The CCNE is the same organization that accredits nursing programs for University of Wisconsin programs.

As of December 2022, the Arizona College of Nursing’s program completion rate was 65% across all of its campuses nationally. Those figures have fluctuated in recent years, from 82% in 2018 to 58% in 2021, which the college attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CCNE requires a 70% program completion rate — the percent of students per year who pass the NCLEX, or the standardized test for entry into the nursing profession — for its accredited programs. The state of Wisconsin requires an 80% pass rate, and publishes data annually online. Wisconsin schools that fall below the 80% benchmark recieve a warning letter from the state and must create a plan for improvement.

Those figures were presented to the Wisconsin Board of Nursing, prompting members to request further information about student support services before allowing the Milwaukee program to admit students.

Documents presented to the board include a list of student support services implemented since 2019 in order to increase student achievement rates. They include an advising program, new college counsleor job position intended to support students with "psycho-social" challenges and tutoring services through tutor.com.

"Over 60% of Arizona College of Nursing students drop out for 'personal reasons' (such as) depression, abusive relationships, homelesness, pregnancy, work conflict, financial hardship, illness and death,'" according to a slide deck presented to the Wisconsin Board of Nursing.

The three-year student loan default rate for the Arizona College of Nursing's Tempe location was 21% as of fiscal year 2019. That was higher than other programs in Wisconsin, like Milwaukee Area Technical College (19%), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (8%), Alverno College (6%) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1%).

The Arizona College of Nursing's 2020 three-year loan default rate fell to 14% for fiscal year 2020. That put the college on par with Milwaukee Area Technical College (14%), but higher than UW-Milwaukee (6%), Alverno College (5%) and UW-Madison (1%).

The Arizona College plans to use a mixture of real-world clinical sites and on-campus simulations for its nursing program. In Wisconsin, nursing students can spend up to half of their clinical instruction hours in simulated settings.

The college has selected dozens of clinical sites for its Wisconsin programs across a mixture of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities and schools. Clinical sites for the Milwaukee program extend into Oconomowoc, Racine and Watertown; Madison sites extend into Beloit, Janesville and Baraboo.

The three-year bachelor's degree program is designed to be “accelerated,” taking place over the course of nine 16-week semesters. The same undergraduate degree typically takes four years to complete at other institutions such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

What steps has the Arizona College of Nursing taken to open new campuses in Wisconsin?

Getting a new nursing college approved in Wisconsin requires a series of three votes from the Wisconsin Board of Nursing: approval to plan a school, approval to admit students, and a final program approval.

The Arizona College of Nursing cleared the first of those two votes in 2022 for its Milwaukee campus. The college can legally begin enrolling students before it receives program approval; if the request is ultimately denied, students would need to transfer to another school.

A building permit that would allow a college to operate at 9000 W. Chester St. is pending. The Milwaukee Common Council is expected to vote in January on that request, according to Ald. Michael Murphy, who represents the address.

The Madison campus is listed at 2501 W. Beltline Highway, according to documents submitted to the Wisconsin Board of Nursing. As of an October vote, the Arizona College has so far received state approval to plan a school at that address large enough for 400 students.

Editor's note, Jan. 5: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the public board in Wisconsin that received complaints related to the Arizona College of Nursing. The complaints were filed to the Wisconsin Educational Approval Program.

Cleo Krejci covers higher education, vocational training and retraining as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at CKrejci@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci. Support her work with a tax-deductible donation atbit.ly/RFADonation.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin location of Arizona College of Nursing could open in spring