A 25-year nursing veteran in both acute and long-term care is now heading Front Range Community College’s new baccalaureate degree program, one of the first four-year degrees the college offers.
Shelly Fischer, PhD, as director, will oversee FRCC’s effort to provide skilled nurses with bachelor’s degrees at a time when Colorado is experiencing an annual shortage of at least 500 nurses with four-year BSN degrees, said FRCC President Andy Dorsey.
A cumulative shortage of 4,500 nurses with BSNs by 2024 is predicted, Dorsey said in a news release. “Our new BSN completion program is designed to help alleviate that shortage,” Dorsey said.
“FRCC has been providing outstanding nursing education for more than 50 years,” Dorsey added. “Dr. Fischer’s leadership will ensure that our BSN program continues to help meet the growing demand for high-skilled health care providers in Colorado.”
“FRCC’s BSN option offers registered nurses and nursing students a seamless transition to this more advanced nursing degree,” Fischer said in the news release. “This gives students an affordable route to better paying jobs right in their home state while simultaneously improving patient outcomes.”
The baccalaureate degree program in nursing at FRCC — which includes the Longmont campus — recently received national accreditation from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
Fischer has been on the nursing faculty at FRCC’s Larimer Campus since 2020. Before that she taught at the University of Colorado and the University of Wyoming, according to the news release.
She served as clinical director for the Heart Center of the Rockies, and later for the Intensive Care unit — both at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins,executive director for Life Care Centers of America and neuroscience director and stroke program coordinator for Swedish Medical Center in Denver.
She holds a PhD in nursing and clinical nurse specialist master’s degree from the University of Colorado. She earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Iowa.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fischer returned to hospital acute care as a bedside RN to help with the surge of patients.
“This work has helped keep my nursing clinical skills sharp, refreshed my perspective on nursing practice, and has served as a strong reminder of why I was drawn to be a nurse,” she said in the news release.
FRCC’s RN-to-BSN completion option allows registered nurses who have completed an associate degree — or students enrolled in a nursing program — to finish their Bachelor of Science degree at FRCC. The new program — which can be completed mostly online — started in late 2019, and has since awarded the college’s first bachelor’s degree, the news release states.
