Potential nurses end up in debt, disappointed

Lots of people want to be nurses. They apply to but can't get into crowded nursing programs at Utah's state colleges and universities while the private Brigham Young University and Westminster College aren't able to take up the slack.

In the meantime, the demand for nurses in Utah continues to grow and the shortage is still at around 1,000 positions at various levels of nursing.

An ongoing state-funded nursing initiative is aimed at hiring more teachers and expanding programs at public institutions.

The Utah System of Higher Education and the Utah College of Applied Technology have requested that lawmakers find $3.5 million for the initiative, but they will be lucky if the 2005 Legislature is able to fund $1.7 million, which is what the Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee is recommending for approval.

Enter nursing tutorial services, businesses that have sprung up amid the state's nursing crisis with claims they can help prepare nursing students to take a test that will propel them into a nursing career.

Three such businesses have been started in recent years. One went under almost as soon as it opened, according to Utah Nurses Association President Marianne Craven.

Now there are two, Ivy Hall Academy of Nursing, which is no longer taking new students, and the similarly named Academy of Nursing, which is the subject of a state criminal investigation for taking money from students over the legal three-months-in-advance limit allowed by state law.

The fallout

Ivy Hall co-founder Matthew Stoker said his plan is to dissolve his business by the end of 2005.

The state has not issued any citations against Ivy Hall, but at least one former student, Rianne Whiting, claims she is out $17,000, funds she secured through the lender Sallie Mae.

Whiting is working with the Utah Division of Consumer Protection on getting some money back.

Problems for Mark and Aaron Hansen, owners of the Academy of Nursing, are much bigger.

They have a deadline of Friday to appeal three citations from the state, after which point Consumer Protection director Francine Giani will officially put the academy out of business.

Giani said Mark Hansen has asked that he be able to provide tutorial services for his remaining students, but Giani refused.