From rural Montana to the ER: Direct entry nursing program helps Montana Tech student pursue nursing dreams
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of saving a life.
“When you work in the emergency room, often you’re actively saving someone’s life,” Montana Technological University nursing junior Maren Ness said. “One minute you’re sitting doing paperwork, and the next someone’s coding and you’re jumping in… It’s just crazy, and I love it.”
For Ness, moments like those have reinforced a career choice she made years ago.
Ness is from the tiny Hi-Line community of Rudyard, and nursing runs in her family. Ness began working as an aide at age 15 and earned her certified nursing assistant license at 16. Since then, she has worked in healthcare facilities while traveling across Montana as a CNA. She now works at St. James Hospital in Butte.
“I always wanted to do nursing,” Ness said. “I never thought of anything else.”
Her experience as a traveling CNA took her to communities across Montana, including Chester, Ekalaka, Eureka, and Ennis. The work gave her an opportunity to meet patients from different backgrounds and see how health care needs can vary between communities.
When it came time to choose a college, Ness toured two nursing schools. She found that the tight-knit community of Butte and small class sizes at Montana Tech were the perfect fit. Her decision also came with an important advantage: Ness had been selected for Montana Tech’s Nursing Scholars Edge Direct Entry Program.
The Nursing Scholars Edge Direct Entry Program selects 25 Montana high school seniors for direct entry into the clinical portion of Montana Tech’s Sherry Lesar School of Nursing. Students selected for the program must maintain a minimum 3.5 GPA while completing prerequisite coursework, but do not have to compete for a seat in the program like others accepted to pre-nursing.
For Ness, knowing her clinical seat was already secured took a significant source of stress out of her first years of college.
“It was nice knowing, even though you have to keep up the GPA, you already made it into the program,” Ness said. “You’re already there. You just have to get through the prerequisites.”
More importantly, she said, Nursing Scholars Edge allowed her to concentrate on becoming a better nurse rather than preparing to compete for placement in the nursing program .
“I could focus solely on my classes,” Ness said.
After graduation, Ness hopes to work in critical care, ideally in an emergency room or intensive care unit. She is considering staying at the hospital where she already works, but she has also thought about pursuing opportunities at a major medical center such as Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic.
Wherever she ends up, she knows she wants an environment where no two shifts are quite the same.
“I have to be running my whole 12-hour shift,” Ness said.
She encourages Montana high school students interested in nursing to apply for the Nursing Scholars Edge Direct Entry Program. Applications are open now. Applicants must have a 3.5 high school GPA to be considered. Students who apply to Montana Tech and have a qualifying GPA will be able to access the application through their personal URL, or PURL page. Applicants will be asked to submit a high school transcript, résumé and responses to essay questions through their personal URL, or PURL page. The initial application window closes at 4 p.m. on Jan. 15.
Questions can be directed to nursing@mtech.edu.
Learn more about the Nursing Scholars Edge Direct Entry Program.