The Arizona State Board of Nursing voted on Thursday to put Aspen University's nursing program on 10-day notice of potential shutdown over the program's ongoing struggle to meet basic educational requirements.
The board will be meeting again soon to make a final decision. If their vote stands, those who are close to graduating won't be able to regardless of how long they have left.
Aspen University nursing students were left in tears. They said have recently seen improvements within the program.
"They're trying. That's the key thing, that they're trying and they're trying to allow us to progress and the changes that they have made, while they may seem minimal to them, they are huge to us," said Racquel Deuschel, a nursing student at the university.
During Thursday's special meeting, the board grilled Aspen's administrative staff about the program's curriculum, clinical hours and nurse licensing exam scores. They say they have noticed a pattern of behavior that is concerning.
"Expecting [students] to have so much self-learning is concerning and not providing them with written exams that are going to be like what they're going to see," says Carolyn Jo McCormies, the Arizona State Board of Nursing's president.
In September of 2022, the university said it would voluntarily surrender its state-issued nursing program approval after teaching out its remaining students.
Now, the teach-out is even at risk as concerns from the state linger over basic education requirements not being met.
"Really not seeing any improvement but the opposite, seeing a decline," says McCormies.
The university told the board, "It's going to take time. Although, I firmly believe that our last few cohorts, you are going to see a major difference and it's because those changes in the curriculum were made earlier on. So, the group who just graduated, they didn't get to benefit from the full curricula change."
The state board says more than enough time has been given, resulting in the nursing program being put on a 10-day notice before a possible shutdown.
Military veteran Marcus Watson tells us he only has eight weeks left to graduate.
"My goal is to work with veterans and treat veterans and we get to this point and it's awfully stressful to be almost at the end and not achieve that goal," said Watson.
That is now in jeopardy.
"I don't know where we go from that point because we worked very hard," says Watson.
There is still no word on what options students have if the program is shut down. It's unsure whether they will recover financial costs and whether they would be able to finish out a program somewhere else.
