HSU, McMurry settle nursing school disagreement - but do so separately

We're not sure Hardin-Simmons and McMurry kissed and made up last week, but at least the recent skirmish over the operation of Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing didn't escalate into an all-out, crosstown war.

And on the eve of Thanksgiving, we can be thankful for that.

If you missed it, the north Abilene university and the south Abilene university butted heads – not football helmets – over the nursing school that has been in operation since 1979. Located adjacent to the original Hendrick Medical Center near Ambler Avenue, it was formed to help students at those two schools and Abilene Christian in their nursing training.

This came long before "nursing shortage" became a familiar phrase.

The school has offered a bachelor's degree in nursing, an RN-to-BSN completion program and a master of science in nursing with education and family nurse practitioner tracks.

ACU left in 2012 to start its own nursing program.

Now, HSU is leaving to start its own program. It will operate at the Holland facility on campus, likely to launch in 2025.

McMurry will take the lead at Patty Hanks Shelton until HSU leaves, presumably so that Hardin-Simmons can devote its attention to its new venture. When HSU leaves, McMurry will have the nursing facility to itself.

It will be odd, in a way, since the Hardin-Simmons campus can be seen from the Shelton windows. And with ACU two miles east and the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center south of Hendrick, four nursing schools are within a small radius.

Consolidation that once seemed to be a good idea in Abilene has gone in another direction.

Rather than calling local reporters together to announce the good news, HSU and McMurry chose the email route. The title of the joint press release was "HSU and McMurry Agree to the Expansion of Nursing Education in Abilene." Which wasn't exactly getting to the point.

Currently, with healh care workers at all levels still recovering from the worst of the pandemic - but still treating patients for the coronavirus and its cousins – it would seem that bringing more nurses to the field would be cause for celebration.

Instead, the celebration was muted. No punch. No cookies in the shape of an old-school nurse's cap.

HSU's email of the agreement came to the Reporter-News at 1:36 p.m. McMurry sent its own release at 3:39.

That also is strange, suggesting a lack of coordination.

Why not have Presidents Eric Bruntmyer and Sandra Harper lead the way, smile and shake hands.

It's probably because the agreement came after McMurry sued HSU for breach of contract, asking for $1 million. The lawsuit claimed Hardin-Simmons was doing more harm than good for the health profession by not selling its interest in the nursing school and threatening to "unilaterally dissolve the program," according to documents.

More:McMurry sues Hardin-Simmons for $1M regarding operation of Shelton nursing school

The agreement announced last week ends all litigation. HSU's Bruntmyer, in a letter to the HSU community, added it was off the hook for any expense: "HSU paid nothing in settlement to McMurry, nor damages of any kind, and admitted no wrongdoing whatsoever."

Sounds like there still are hard feelings.

Both HSU and McMurry have shifted academic focuses over the past few years. HSU, for example, has gone the health care direction, taking over a former city-owned building a mile south on Pine Street to house its physical therapy facility. HSU also is home to Holland Medical High School, a magnet school within the Abilene Independent School District.

Nursing Almanac ranks Texas nursing schools, and it may be a surprise that there are 80 in our state.

ACU is ranked No. 16. Patty Hanks Shelton currently is No. 42. Students there pass the testing at a 94% rate.

No. 1? Texas Tech, which has a branch campus in Abilene.

Thus, nursing education here is both available and highly regarded.

We're glad this family feud, if not completely over, has calmed.

We need our three four-year universities to work together. Forty or so years ago, the presidents of each campus chose to work more closely, seeing how that benefited each school and Abilene as a whole.

That prescription could well be written and filled today.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Opinion: HSU, McMurry settle nursing disagreement - but do so separately