Three Rivers won't offer nurse program in Cape Girardeau

~ Three Rivers refused to enter into a partnership with SEMO and couldn't come to terms with Saint Francis Medical Center.

Three Rivers Community College won't offer nursing classes in Cape Girardeau because the college and Saint Francis Medical Center can't agree on a contract.

The issue centered on Three Rivers' refusal to enter into a partnership with Southeast Missouri State University to teach the nursing and general education courses, college and hospital officials said.

Three Rivers withdrew its application to the Missouri Department of Higher Education late last month.

Three Rivers had sought to offer a degree program at St. Francis Medical Center that would have allowed licensed practical nurses to get the training needed to become registered nurses.

Barbara Thompson, vice president of marketing and public relations at St. Francis, said the hospital wanted a contract setting out that Three Rivers would teach the nursing courses and Southeast Missouri State University would teach the general education courses.

But Three Rivers refused to enter into any partnership with Southeast. Rather, Three Rivers proposed to enter into a contract with Saint Francis to provide the nursing classes at the hospital and allow the medical center to contract separately with Southeast or any other school to provide the general education classes.

Dr. Larry Kimbrow, Three Rivers' executive vice president, said Thursday that his school won't enter into any agreement with Southeast because of the ongoing dispute between the two schools over operation of three Bootheel education centers.

"We didn't want to go into a cooperative agreement with them again," he said.

The two schools have been at odds since February when the university dissolved its partnership in the teaching of college courses at education centers in Kennett, Malden and Sikeston.

Both Saint Francis and university officials said Three Rivers rewrote the proposed nursing contract which had been developed over months of negotiations.

"The contract was dramatically different than what we had agreed to verbally," Thompson said.

She said the nursing program is needed to combat a nursing shortage.

But the hospital didn't want to have to subcontract part of the teaching load. "We are not in the business of education," said Thompson. "Our mission is to provide health care."

Thompson voiced disappointment at Three Rivers' unwillingness to partner with the university.

University president Dr. Ken Dobbins said his school was willing to partner with Three Rivers to train nurses.

"It makes no sense," Dobbins said of Three Rivers' decision. "It is unfortunate they are taking that attitude when there is a need."

Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau had voiced concern about the proposal, arguing that it would be an unnecessary duplication of nurse training.

Cape Girardeau already has two nursing programs: The four-year degree program at Southeast Missouri State University and the associate-degree program offered by Southeast Missouri Hospital's College of Nursing.

Southeast Hospital provides the nursing training for its associate-degree program; the university teaches the general education courses.

Kimbrow said Three Rivers' decision to withdraw the application had nothing to do with Southeast Missouri Hospital's opposition to the proposal.

But Dobbins said the opposition likely would have made it harder to gain state approval.

The dispute between Southeast and Three Rivers has lingered since Southeast took over teaching of all classes at the centers this summer. Three Rivers filed a lawsuit, accusing Southeast of breaching an agreement in which the community college paid rent to teach classes in the centers.

The Poplar Bluff-based community college also opened six education centers to compete with Southeast's three centers.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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