USD Nursing, Grant Dollars Prepare South Dakota Nurses
Brittany (Weber) Engstrom is one USD nursing graduate trained with support from federal grant dollars intended to create a pipeline of highly skilled nurses for South Dakota. Engstrom, who hails from Tyndall, South Dakota, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nursing in December 2023 and is continuing her career at Avera McKennan as a registered nurse.
USD nursing’s low student-to-faculty ratio and high first-time NCLEX pass rate of 94.1%, as well as its flexible course options, position it to effectively prepare South Dakota’s nurses to be work-ready.
The grants were acquired from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the U.S. Department of Labor as part of the DOL Nursing Expansion Grant Program. The grants, administered by USD nursing faculty members, have the following strategies in place.
- Create training models to strengthen nurse readiness for practice.
- Increase diversity of the nursing workforce, recruiting students from varied backgrounds who will then go on to practice in South Dakota’s underserved communities spanning the entire state.
- Work closely with workforce development and practice partners across the state to support the development of a nursing workforce through targeted recruitment and education strategies.
- Facilitate new collaborations to develop long-term strategies for improving nursing workforce pipelines to meet the workforce needs of South Dakota.
Engstroms’s tentative plan is to stay in Sioux Falls and work her way to becoming a flight nurse. “It’s the most selfless way I feel I can give back to the community,” she said. “To help someone in their worst moment is so satisfying and rewarding.”
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