Category: Newsroom

This article originally appeared in Fairfield University Magazine, the alumni magazine of Fairfield University.

Bryan Rivera ’25 was not born in Texas. But as the saying goes, he got here as fast as he could. It was a circuitous route, to be sure, as Rivera was born in Spain, raised in the Philippines, and schooled in Alaska. Today, he resides in Austin, Texas, and is a nursing major in Fairfield University’s Accelerated Second Degree Nursing (ASDNU) program.

More than halfway through his bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree studies in the Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies, Rivera takes classes at Fairfield Egan’s state-of-the-art Austin, Texas campus. With graduation on the horizon, he looks forward to improving the lives of his fellow Texans.

“I enrolled in nursing school because I want to have an impact on my community,” said Rivera. “Fairfield’s nursing program, with its emphasis on compassionate care, will help me achieve that goal and become a competent and caring nurse who makes a difference.”

Fairfield Egan opened its Austin campus and launched its ASDNU program there in the summer of 2023. The 15-month program is designed for non-nursing baccalaureate degree holders who wish to pursue a second bachelor’s degree in nursing. The University led with that program because it provides the quickest means of sending BSN-prepared nurses into the workforce.

The ASDNU program was perfect for Rivera, who holds a bachelor of business administration degree in marketing and worked as an advocate for higher education for nearly a decade. After completing a few additional science prerequisites, he entered the program as a junior.

“The program is a great opportunity for people like me who are interested in nursing but pursued a different path with their initial degree,” he said. “It also fills an important gap in nursing education in the area.”

Austin is one of the fastest-growing cities in one of the fastest-growing states in the nation. Its unprecedented growth has transformed the once laid-back college town into a major metropolis. As with any city, population growth can strain resources. Such has been the case in Austin and the state of Texas, where the impact of domestic migration on the healthcare system has become especially obvious in recent years.

The demand for nurses in Texas is driven largely by the same factors as in other areas — aging populations, educational bottlenecks, occupational burnout, and workforce retirement — but is further amplified by regional growth. The year-over-year increase in new residents has caused and continues to cause a Texas-sized shortage of nurses. In fact, the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies projects a statewide deficit of more than 56,000 registered nurses by 2036.

For Connecticut-based Fairfield, the nursing shortage in Texas provided the impetus for an Austin campus. There was an urgent need for qualified nurses in the state, and the Egan School is nationally recognized for its expertise in nursing education. Geographical expansion into the Southwest offered an extraordinary opportunity for the mission-driven Jesuit university to reach a wider audience and to impact the health of a community and its residents.

Christopher Mangram ’25, a classmate of Rivera’s, is a native of Houston who traveled the world as a Navy corpsman. His experiences in the military compelled him to pursue a career in nursing. He discovered Fairfield Egan’s ASDNU program upon his return to Texas and immediately enrolled.

“I realized my calling during a Navy deployment to Southeast Asia, where I was sent for humanitarian purposes,” Mangram said. “I mostly conducted health screenings but also delivered a baby in Timor-Leste and taught neonatal resuscitation to midwives in Malaysia.”

Neither Mangram nor Rivera are typical nursing students. Both are male and have considerable life experience — two points that are not unrelated in nursing school. Greater life experience often means increased exposure to medical situations and awareness of the value of care providers. It can also make people less susceptible to stereotypical thinking about nurses and nursing.

It is therefore not surprising that Mangram, Rivera, and their fellow male nursing students represent 19 percent of their Austin cohort. That impressive figure well exceeds the national average of 12.8 percent for men in undergraduate nursing programs.

Because the ASDNU program is designed for non-traditional students, it tends to attract more diverse populations than traditional BSN programs. As such, it was the right program with which to launch the new Austin campus and to extend the University’s reach and impact.

Fairfield University was not founded in Texas, but it got here as fast as it could.

Fairfield University is a member of the Central Texas Healthcare Partnership. The partnership was founded in early 2018 under the leadership of three Central Texas healthcare industry leaders: Baylor Scott & White Health, Ascension Seton, and St. David’s HealthCare. Learn more about how the CTHP is leading workforce development in the Central Texas healthcare industry.

Workforce Solutions Capital Area partners with many local healthcare employers to train and hire the workforce for this key local industry. One of our partners is Fairfield University.

Fairfield University’s nationally ranked nursing school expanded into Austin in 2023 with its accelerated second degree nursing program. Gabby Kearney is among the first graduates of the 15-month program at the state-of-the-art campus on Shoal Creek Boulevard.

Gabby is currently an RN Resident in the Intermediate Care Unit at Dell Children’s Medical Center. She was offered the position after completing Ascension’s Student Nurse Intern Program there in her final semester at Fairfield.

She is delighted to share her experiences below.

How did your intern experience prepare you for your current position?

The Student Nurse Intern Program was an invaluable experience! I am so much farther ahead than other members of my cohort who didn’t have the same opportunity, and it has given me so much more confidence as a newly graduated nurse.

I have been able to take over full patient loads in my first 6 weeks of my orientation with minimal intervention from my preceptors because I have already had five months of experience on the unit and with my coworkers. The extra time on the unit has allowed me to build relationships with my coworkers and demonstrate my competencies that I have learned in nursing school and while on the unit during the SNI experience.

Building these relationships has allowed my coworkers to have more trust in me taking over care for their patients. By having a head start, I have been scheduled for more shifts in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and received exposure to higher acuity patients coming to our floor once they have stabilized. I would not have felt comfortable being in the PICU if I didn’t have the extra experience from SNI.

What aspects of your Fairfield education were most valuable?

I appreciate the diligence of my professors at Fairfield. They prepared me to be successful by regularly testing my critical thinking skills, which are the hardest skills to become proficient in as a new nurse. They also taught me how comorbidities of real life patients intertwine and complicate the basic pathophysiology taught in the textbook cases.

Most importantly, my professors taught me to always ask questions when something is not clear or doesn’t make sense, to advocate for my patients, and to never stop learning new information.

Fairfield University is a member of the Central Texas Healthcare Partnership. The partnership was founded in early 2018 under the leadership of three Central Texas healthcare industry leaders: Baylor Scott & White Health, Ascension Seton, and St. David’s HealthCare. Learn more about how the CTHP is leading workforce development in the Central Texas healthcare industry.