On her first day of nursing clinicals, Valerie Nevaeh Gale put a few of her newly-learned abilities to follow at Methodist Metropolitan Hospital: inserting intravenous catheters and getting ready sufferers going out and in of cardiovascular surgical procedures.
“I even went into the working room,” Gale stated as her day was coming to an finish. “That was actually cool as a result of I used to be actually up shut and private watching. As soon as they began doing the incision and stuff I took a step again, however then that they had it broadcasted and I may ask as many questions (as I wished).”
Gale is a part of San Antonio School’s first cohorts of scholars incomes an associates and bachelor’s diploma in nursing concurrently — a subject wherein faculty and healthcare officers agree there’s a constantly rising demand. That is a technique the school is making an attempt to encourage college students to finish levels whereas saving them money and time by providing associated programs on the identical time.
This fall was the beginning of Gale’s second semester. Her first medical rotation was at Methodist Metropolitan’s cardiovascular catheterization lab the place docs carry out 1000’s of coronary heart procedures and surgical procedures per yr.
She is a part of a cohort of 270 college students, most of them already registered nurses. This system began with 22 college students in 2021 and has now graduated 91 nurses with bachelor’s levels.
“From the very entrance now, we’re setting our college students up to have the ability to obtain the BSN. It’s all in alignment,” SAC President Francisco Solis stated. “They don’t have to fret that any of their earlier credit don’t go in the direction of the BSN program. Even the stipulations work.”
SAC’s Faculty of Nursing and Well being Professions can also be on the verge of doubling in measurement with the development of a brand new constructing to be situated within the medical heart as a part of the $987 million bond accredited by voters in Might.
This was a part of the Alamo Schools District’s deliberate growth to supply bachelors levels in particular areas of workforce demand.
Within the case of nursing, college students have the chance to decide on between three absolutely on-line tracks, a hybrid choice and the concurrent program for many who are usually not but registered nurses with an affiliate’s diploma, like Gale.
“So in two years they end with their affiliate diploma, then they take a look at for licensure, after which they end their final course of their bachelor diploma and so they’ll graduate with their (BSN),” defined Dr. Eve Rodriguez, government director of the Registered Nurse to Baccalaureate Program.
Crissy Womble, Methodist Healthcare affiliate vp of educational partnerships, oversees partnerships with faculties for medical alternatives throughout its 11 hospitals. She stated inhabitants development throughout the San Antonio area means extra hospitals and clinics — but in addition a necessity for extra workers to offer the care.
The demand for certified nurses is so nice that even when all present college students had been to graduate there would nonetheless be open positions, she stated. The hospital system has labored to extend medical spots to accommodate for the expansion of applications like SAC’s and the area’s demand.
“This yr we’ll be shut to three,000 graduates domestically within the metropolis for nurses. And that received’t fill the entire want,” Womble stated. “ So if all 3,000 got here to us, we’d be good, however that’s not going to occur … final yr we employed a few thousand (new graduate) nurses, and shall be hiring greater than that this yr.”
A problem of value
Gale knew she wished to pursue a profession in healthcare at an early age. She was a sick child, she stated, her physique doesn’t produce sufficient hemoglobin and he or she needed to get blood transfusions typically.
It was there, via the nurses who took care of her as a toddler, that she discovered to like the career.
“I began asking questions,” Gale remembers. “Like, ‘Can I put in my port?’ ‘Can I do that?’ ‘Can I push the buttons?’ … If you find yourself within the hospital for a when you begin to make associates.”
Her navy household moved loads, and Gale began her nursing diploma on the College of Virgin Islands in St. Thomas. Shortly after, there was an accreditation problem along with her program, Gale stated, and he or she needed to begin searching for different applications.
Value was an enormous precedence of Gale’s as she didn’t need to put the burden of paying for nursing college on her mom who was elevating her and her two siblings as a single mother.
She then turned to San Antonio, the place her mom grew up and the place Gale spent a part of her summers visiting her grandparents.
She utilized to the College of Incarnate Phrase, however she stated it was not on the high of her record as a result of the price of a personal college being increased than what she may afford. Then she utilized on the College of Texas at San Antonio, however she was advised on the time she needed to take her core programs at UTSA earlier than making use of to the then separate establishment UT Well being San Antonio.
Tuition within the 16-month accelerated bachelor’s program at UIW is anticipated to value between $73,000 and $76,000. At UT San Antonio, an identical program is slated to value between $53,000 and $65,000. Whereas these figures don’t embrace monetary help, additionally they don’t account for the price of dwelling for a pupil transferring to the town, like Gale.
At SAC the bachelor monitor is obtainable for about $10,740. This yr, Gale was anticipating to pay near $4,000 in tuition, however she ended up paying nothing after college inspired her to use for as many grants and scholarships as potential.
That’s cash she will be able to now put in the direction of one thing else, a real blessing, she stated.
The chance for Gale to earn a bachelor’s alongside along with her affiliate’s diploma was one she didn’t know was even potential. After transferring her credit and catching up on the stipulations that she couldn’t switch from her earlier faculty, Gale was invited to use for the concurrent program.
“That was the primary time I ever heard that there have been so many various tracks,” Gale stated. “I by no means utilized for the concurrent (program). It was one thing that they delivered to me … I actually recognize that as a result of it made me notice, ‘Dang! Possibly I’m not only a quantity.”
Taking an additional step
Yolada Ruiz, a registered nurse with a tenure at Methodist Hospitals of about 12 years, was one of many 4 nurses that Gale had a possibility to shadow on her first day of clinicals this semester.
Ruiz herself graduated from SAC with an affiliate’s diploma about 12 years in the past, she stated, then she finally earned her BSN via Our Girl of the Lake and the College of Saint Mary in Kansas. Proper now she is hoping to proceed onto a doctorate diploma in nursing.
“I’ve all the time loved educating,” Ruiz stated. “I’ve all the time taken my expertise and tried to include it into the expertise of nursing college students that are available in as a result of, you realize, whenever you’ve been there, you realize what to anticipate and what nursing college students wrestle with.”
Womble stated each nurse that works at Methodist takes on an identical educating position. This permits them to proceed coaching candidates that might keep and fill positions on the hospital they skilled in, or transfer to a different one in all their hospitals and know they’ve obtained coaching from their very own workers.
Licensure take a look at passing charges will assist the hospital system decide which program to prioritize for medical rotations, she stated. Over the previous few years, Methodist has elevated the variety of medical teams they’ve been capable of welcome for rotations, from 51 pupil teams in 2024 to 67 in 2025.
Ideally, many of those graduates will stay of their hospital district, or at the least the area.
“The purpose is that we’re getting ready them nicely, we wish them to remain native in San Antonio,” Womble stated. “We might love them to be at Methodist, however we are going to encourage them to simply be right here. We need to take care of our neighborhood.”
Via applications like SAC’s hospital methods additionally get to see their very own nurses transfer up the ladder. Based on Methodist survey knowledge, about 95% of the nurses who earned a bachelor’s diploma reported a promotion and a wage enhance, and 81% stated they plan to use to a different graduate program.
The applications are all the time being examined to satisfy rigor expectations and supply the wanted hands-on coaching for college students to get licensed and hit the bottom working, Rodriguez stated, however she believes they’ve developed blueprint to increase this system to the Medical Heart.
“I really feel assured that our program right here could possibly be streamlined anyplace,” Rodriguez stated. “It’s going to make it much more accessible to everybody as a result of it’s going to be central and it’s going to have all the things wanted.”
This December, the school is slated to graduate their first concurrent cohort of about 7 college students. This cohort began with about 30 college students, however 23 weren’t profitable in finishing their associates.
“It is vitally difficult for college students to adapt to the adjustments and time wanted for examine,” Rodriguez stated. “To keep away from them failing once more, they’re faraway from the (bachelors) to focus solely on the (associates).”
Gale is anticipated to graduate in 2026, and hopes to land in a fast-paced emergency room, maybe in San Antonio or Texas earlier than touring out of state. For now, she discovered work at Methodist Hospital Northeast as a nurse extern on high of her medical rotations to get via faculty with probably the most expertise potential.
For Gale, a self-described planner and an overachiever, it’s the rigor of this system that retains her motivated.
“For me college all the time got here straightforward,” Gale stated. “Within the nursing program, it’s extra like, ‘Hey, we’re going to show you to take the additional step’ … I’m actually working for my training in the easiest way potential. I’ve created new habits that I’ve by no means had earlier than, that I solely know will assist me as soon as I get into the sphere.”
