The university offers a 24-hour support line for students with technical or academic questions, and an administrator helps students secure a clinical assignment in their hometowns where they work with a nurse preceptor. The entire program is $2,000 plus the cost of textbooks. MSU's program features 15 online course modules that help prepare students to identify the professional roles, responsibilities and assessment skills needed to return to nursing. Kessler says that while some students have completed the program in five to six weeks, most take three to six months to finish since they often juggle coursework with work and family responsibilities. 'Since our program is ongoing, students can enroll at any time and complete the program at their own pace.' 'Our online program attracts nurses from all across the world,' says Katie Kessler, RN, MSN, APRN, BC, who until recently coordinated the MSU program. Michigan State University (MSU) is one college that allows students to take RN refresher courses from home, as does the University of Delaware and South Carolina's Beaufort Memorial Hospital, which offers a four-month online refresher course for both RNs and LPNs. Other students use signing bonuses to recoup tuition costs. Students now meet tuition costs by taking out student loans or by using tuition reimbursement offered by their current employers.

Gross says the college and a local hospital are working out an agreement whereby the hospital will cover half the program expenses of students who accept jobs at the hospital. 'We went through the program in a cohort group and supported each other every step of the way,' says Kuhns, who worked as a nurse for 11 years before taking time off to raise her children.

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