SRTC among top schools for nursing graduates in Georgia
Mar. 7—THOMASVILLE, Ga. — The Georgia Board of Nursing recently reported that 375 nurses earned their Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) at Southern Regional Technical College (SRTC) from 2019 to 2022. That number is the highest ASN graduation rate of the Technical College System of Georgia's (TCSG) colleges and the fourth highest among all ASN programs offered at colleges and universities in the State of Georgia.
Georgia's high demand for nurses continues to grow. The severe nursing shortage is due in part to a rapidly growing population and an increase in older nurse retirement, SRTC said in a press release. The shortage rose to critical levels during the COVID-19 pandemic, when over 100,000 nurses across the nation left their posts.
Georgia is one of the states most affected by nursing scarcity, and rural Georgia is particularly vulnerable, the college said.
"Graduating well-trained, qualified nurses is mission-critical for us here in South Georgia," said SRTC Nursing Program Chair Athalena Benton, MSN, BSN, RN. "Hospitals, clinics, and physicians' offices across our service delivery area depend on us to provide them with a steady stream of capable nurses who graduate prepared to care for patients."
SRTC's former Dean of Nursing Tammy Bryant, MSN, BSN, RN now serves as state director of curriculum for Allied Health for the TCSG. Currently, she is also the president of the Georgia Board of Nursing. Bryant credits the rigor and practicality of SRTC's Nursing program with its graduation and career readiness success rates, adding that the Nursing program at SRTC maintains a 100% graduate job placement rate.
"Technical education provides students with real hands-on skill and experience, which is the most important thing in nursing," Bryant said. "SRTC's nursing students graduate fully prepared to begin their careers in healthcare, and the program's clinical partners recognize that."
SRTC offers the ASN program in Thomasville and Tifton, as well as a nursing bridge program in Moultrie and Thomasville, which transitions Licensed Practical Nurses to Registered Nurses. The program adheres to guidelines set forth by the Georgia Board of Nursing with a focus on strict admissions guidelines and a rigorous testing regimen to produce only top performing nurses. With eleven credentialed instructors, the program upholds the student-to-faculty ratios designated by the Georgia Board of Nursing of 25:1 in the classroom and 10:1 in clinical settings. In two years or less, both tracks prepare students to graduate as practitioners who can provide safe, effective nursing care in a variety of healthcare settings, SRTC said.
