CSU Monterey Bay expands nursing program and lowers tuition
SEASIDE CALIF. - This fall, CSUMB will expand its Bachelor of Science nursing program and lower the tuition. The program is being moved to a state-funded model to lower the cost of attendance.
The new Director of Nursing at CSUMB, Dr. Cindy Stein said she was excited to see how this will help our area’s healthcare workers in the future.
“I think it's really exciting because it's going to allow us to have more resources that are university resources,” Stein said. “And we're not going to have to be sustainable on our own, but mostly it's going to make the tuition more affordable for our students.”
CSUMB nursing students, like Fabiola Abonoce, think that the tuition lowering could really help students with all of the expenses and stress of being in nursing school.
“I think it's just really helpful because I do know that a lot of students might not get help by the school,” Abonoce said. “And they have to pay everything and I think there is a lot of stress. And a lot of I know a lot of students don't work because nursing school is a full-time job.”
Students, like Daniel Nelson, also think that this could help nurses locally after going to nursing school.
“I think it definitely opens up more opportunities,” Nelson said, “And more people will be incentivized to become a nurse and if you could do it locally that's even better because like you said, there is a nursing shortage of healthcare workers.”
Chief Nursing Officer at Salinas Valley Health, Lisa Paulo says that people in the area in the past have had trouble getting their nurses’ degrees locally.
“If you think about our own local area,” Paulo said. “Graduating from high school and being able to stay in the same community you grew up in, go to a junior college, get your nursing degree, and go and get your bachelor's degree at a lower rate is a gift you're not having to go up to the Bay Area and achieve that and you're not having to pay additional resources in a very high-cost area to achieve that bachelor's degree.”
The director of nursing at CSUMB hopes that this funding from the state can eventually expand and help create a graduate student nursing program.
“I think we're unique from a lot of nursing schools in that we're localized to the issues in Monterey County,” Stein said. “Particularly we have a very, very strong commitment to diversity, inclusion, and really trying to give people from the community access to become health workers.”
In 2024, a spring admission cycle will begin allowing more access to a bachelor in science of nursing. Studies have shown that healthcare facilities with a higher ratio of BSN-trained nurses have better patient outcomes.
