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Ryan Jim wants to become a nurse because he understands health care challenges in rural, Native communities.
Growing up, the 20-year-old Fort Lewis College student would help take care of grandparents and regularly drive them to doctor appointments near his home in Fort Defiance, Arizona on the Navajo Nation reservation. He noticed many of the medical professionals would frequently come and go since they worked on part-time contracts.
“The nurses that travel through do care to learn about the culture, but they are just temporary,” Jim said. “I feel like my people want more of their own community members to provide them care, someone that understands the troubles and hardships that the Native reservation has encountered and still is going through.”
This semester, Jim began his journey to care for his community as one of 22 Fort Lewis students in the inaugural cohort in the Durango school’s new Nursing Hall bachelor’s degree program.
The college’s program launched this fall with the goal of keeping aspiring health care professionals like Jim in the Four Corners region, a rural area where the borders of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah meet.
The program is the only bachelor’s degree-level nursing program in the region. It fulfills a vital need to combat a nationwide nursing shortage that’s more pronounced in rural areas, said Maggie LaRose, Fort Lewis College’s director of nursing.
Nationwide, about 80% of counties are considered health care deserts, with access to services much more difficult in rural areas, according to a national study by GoodRx Research, a prescription and health care comparison website. For example, some counties in the Four Corners region have inadequate access to prescription drugs or primary care providers.
“It’s not uncommon for a patient to travel an hour for the closest medical provider,” LaRose said. “They come in for an appointment, then tomorrow they’re supposed to come in for a scan, and then the next day they’re supposed to do blood work. That just becomes a really difficult thing.”
The program, which has been several years in the making, partners with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, 350 miles northeast from Fort Lewis College in Durango. Leaders at Fort Lewis have built a new nursing facility paid through philanthropy and government funding, including $1.3 million in congressionally directed spending championed by U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both Colorado Democrats.
Faculty from CU will help teach students about medical practices and procedures, and classes will also include teachings focused on rural health and Indigenous cultures.
Students like Jim first have to complete general courses before they apply to the nursing program. Already, the school has 89 pre-nursing students who want to apply, LaRose said.
“I really do think it’s going to make a difference and have an impact on the health of our region,” LaRose said.
Chaelyn Ziegler, 21, said she appreciates the new program because it keeps her close to home, is less expensive, and away from bigger cities. Ziegler attended school in San Diego before moving back to Durango.
As a student in the first class of the Fort Lewis program, she enjoys being some of the only students in the new building and learning about human bodies and diseases. She’s not sure if she will stay in the Durango area after she graduates, but she wants to remain in a more-rural setting.
“A small town is kind of where I want to end up,” she said. “I don’t really want to go back to the city.”
Jim shares Ziegler’s excitement of being part of the first class in a new program. He originally thought he would have to go to school in Grand Rapids, Michigan to get his degree. But he enrolled at Fort Lewis College because the school promised it would start the new bachelor’s degree program and would keep him closer to his home.
The nursing program has focused on the health of the region, equipping him with the knowledge he’s desired so he can someday advocate for better health in his community — just like he has done for his family. He said his peers share the same passion.
“We all want to make an impact on our communities and where we all come from,” Jim said. “And I think that’s pretty cool.”
Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.
