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Research Nursing

The Trust prides itself on being a research-active hospital. As a Trust, we believe it is vital to be able to offer patients the opportunity to access the best new treatments, and to be able to help shape future care. We have nationally and internationally renowned investigators in a number of key clinical areas. There are over 70 staff employed by the Trust to support the delivery of clinical research, over half of those are registered nurses. We are very keen to support and promote local Nursing and Allied Health Professional research.

We try to offer patients in all areas the opportunity to get involved in research, and traditionally excel in more complex interventional studies. University Hospitals Plymouth prides itself on its ability not only to recruit the number of patients we agree, but also to give excellent care during the study so that our patients remain in the study until their last scheduled visit. We have a very stable population in the South West, and our research patient feedback is exceptional.

The Principal Investigator (PI) is the person responsible for a study at site level. We have a growing number of nurses and midwives in the Trust who are PIs for NIHR adopted studies – this is a role that we are committed to promoting and supporting.

We also encourage staff to develop their own research ideas and have a dedicated Research Adviser who can provide guidance and support on how best to write, fund and deliver a study. The University of Plymouth also offers a Masters Degree in Clinical Research.  We offer placements for both nursing students and medical students with our clinical research teams, and are keen to demonstrate that research is a viable and exciting career pathway.

The hospital houses a dedicated Research ward ‘The Lind’ which has day time accommodation for 9 patients. This allows us to care for patients who need specialist care, which might be supplementary to their standard clinical care. We have a number of research teams based in different clinical areas. In many of those areas research is now seen as a core treatment option for patients, rather than an additional service. For example, our haematology, ED, Critical Care and oncology teams are all accommodated alongside their clinical colleagues and share patient ward and clinic space, providing our patients with a seamless experience between standard care and research. Our aim is to become more integrated with the clinical teams in the Trust so that research becomes part of standard hospital practice. This means that we actively promote opportunities to work in collaboration with our clinical teams.

Lead Research Nurse

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MHST Educational Mental Health Support Worker

Livewell southwest plymouth pl4 7py.

• Salary: £22,816 to £24,336 a year
• Distance: 0.6 miles
• Closing date: 21 June 2024
• Contract type: Fixed-Term
• Working pattern: Flexible working, Full time, Job-share, Part time

MHST Specialist Practitioner and EMHP Supervisor

• Salary: £35,392 to £42,618 a year
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Health Visitor

• Closing date: 30 June 2024

Clinical Psychologist

Livewell southwest plymouth pl46lf.

• Salary: £50,952 to £57,349 a year
• Closing date: 23 June 2024

Decontamination Assistant

Peninsula dental social enterprise cic plymouth pl1 4jz.

• Salary: £24,091.00 to £25,762.00 a year
• Distance: 2.3 miles
• Closing date: 14 June 2024
• Working pattern: Part time

Dental Nurse

• Salary: £26,278 a year

Healthcare Assistant

Alliance medical ltd derriford pl6 8dh.

• Salary: £24,960 to £26,000 a year
• Distance: 2.1 miles
• Closing date: 31 May 2025
• Working pattern: Full time

Clerical Officer

University hospitals plymouth nhs trust plymouth pl6 8dh.

• Salary: £22,383 a year
• Closing date: 13 June 2024
• Working pattern: Full time, Part time

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Nhs professionals limited derriford pl6 8dh.

• Salary: £17 to £28 an hour
• Closing date: 29 June 2024
• Contract type: Bank
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Registered Nurse

Reimagining the nursing workload: Finding time to close the workforce gap

US healthcare organizations continue to grapple with the impacts of the nursing shortage—scaling back of health services, increasing staff burnout and mental-health challenges, and rising labor costs. While several health systems have had some success in rebuilding their nursing workforces   in recent months, estimates still suggest a potential shortage of 200,000 to 450,000 nurses in the United States, with acute-care settings likely to be most affected. 1 Gretchen Berlin, Meredith Lapointe, Mhoire Murphy, and Joanna Wexler, “ Assessing the lingering impact of COVID-19 on the nursing workforce ,” McKinsey, May 11, 2022. Identifying opportunities to close this gap remains a priority in the healthcare industry. This article highlights research conducted by McKinsey in collaboration with the ANA Enterprise on how nurses are actually spending their time during their shifts and how they would ideally distribute their time if given the chance. The research findings underpin insights that can help organizations identify new approaches to address the nursing shortage and create more sustainable and meaningful careers for nurses.

Over the past three years, McKinsey has been reporting on trends within the nursing workforce , collecting longitudinal data on nurses’ self-reported likelihood to leave their jobs and factors driving nurses’ intent to leave. 2 “ Nursing in 2023: How hospitals are confronting shortages ,” McKinsey, May 5, 2023. As of March 2023, 45 percent of inpatient nurses (who make up about 2.0 million of the 4.2 million nurses in the United States 3 Nursing fact sheet, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, updated September 2022. ) reported they are likely to leave their role in the next six months. Among those who reported an intent to leave, the top two reasons cited were not feeling valued by their organization and not having a manageable workload. In fact, nurses have consistently reported increasing workload burden as a main factor behind their intent to leave.

About the research

We conducted a survey of 310 registered nurses across the United States from February 8 to March 22, 2023. Our goal was to understand nurses’ perception of time spent throughout the course of a shift and to identify existing and desired resources to help nurses provide high-quality care. Our sample focused on nurses in roles that predominantly provide direct patient care in the intensive-care unit, step-down, general medical surgical, or emergency department settings. Insights were weighted by length of shift (the minimum shift time included was six hours).

For questions related to intent to leave nursing, all nurses from any care setting (including home care and long-term care facilities) were included. Our survey questions on intent to leave have been kept consistent to collect longitudinal data on nurses’ intent. Our last survey, of 368 frontline direct-care nurses, was conducted in September 2022.

In our new survey, nurses provided a breakdown of the average time spent during a typical shift across 69 activities (see sidebar “About the research”). They also reported their views on the ideal amount of time they would like to spend on these same activities. In looking at ways to redesign care activities, we found the potential to free up to 15 percent of nurses’ time through tech enablement, or automation, and improved delegation of tasks (Exhibit 1). Leveraging delegation and tech enablement could reduce and redistribute activities that nurses report being predominantly responsible for. The subsequent reduction in time savings could improve nursing workload and their ability to manage more complex patients. When we translate the net amount of time freed up to the projected amount of nursing time needed, we estimate the potential to close the workforce gap by up to 300,000 nurses.

Nurses report a desire to spend more time with their patients, coach fellow nurses, and participate in professional-growth activities

In our survey, we explored where nurses wanted to spend more of their time (Exhibit 2). The responses fall into the following three categories.

Direct patient care

Nurses report spending the majority of their shift—54 percent, or about seven hours of a 12-hour shift—providing direct patient care and creating personal connections with patients (direct patient care includes patient education, medication administration, and support of daily-living activities). The survey reveals that nurses wish to spend even more time in these activities.

Spending sufficient time on patient-care activities promotes both nursing satisfaction and quality of patient care. 4 Terry L. Jones, Patti Hamilton, and Nicole Murry, “Unfinished nursing care, missed care, and implicitly rationed care: State of the science review,” International Journal of Nursing Studies , June 2015, Volume 52, Issue 6. Furthermore, rushing care and not having sufficient time to meet patients’ needs can contribute to moral distress and burnout.

Teaching and training for new nurses and peers

Nurses report spending on average about 2 percent of their shift teaching peers and students (excluding shifts when nurses are in a dedicated teaching or “precepting” role), an activity they say they want to spend double the amount of time on. Peer-to-peer teaching is an important component of building workplace cohesiveness, improving patient outcomes, and preparing new generations of nurses. In our survey, nurses report that they often lack the time to engage in coaching new nurses. As a result, important informal teaching, which is critical to build confidence and to support skill development for newer nurses, is often missed.

Involvement in professional-growth activities

Similar to educating other nurses, nurses report wanting to spend more than double the amount of time on growth and development activities (about 7 percent of an ideal shift). These activities include participating in shared governance, reviewing and reading work emails, and completing annual requirements and continuing education hours.

Freeing up nursing time to support organizational initiatives and further professional development may contribute to a nursing staff that is more engaged, feels valued, and has a strong connection to their departments.

Nurses desire to spend less time on documentation, hunting and gathering, and administrative and support tasks

Charting and documentation.

Documentation continues to greatly contribute to nurses’ workloads, making up 15 percent of a nurse’s shift. The most time-consuming documentation tasks are head-to-toe assessments, admissions intakes, and vitals charting, which account for the majority of documenting time (70 percent). Nurses say that ideally, documenting should make up only about 13 percent of their shift. But without realistic and effective alternatives (for example, nursing scribes, device integration, reduction in documentation requirements, and AI to aid with documentation), it is unlikely that nurses’ documentation burden can be fully alleviated.

Hunting and gathering

For nurses, hunting and gathering means searching for individuals, equipment, supplies, medications, or information. Nurses report that they spend about 6 percent of a 12-hour shift on hunting and gathering—tasks they would spend approximately 3 percent of their shift on in an ideal shift.

Activities best delegated to support staff

Nurses report spending nearly 5 percent of their shift on tasks that do not use the fullest extent of their license and training. For example, they say they spend nearly an hour on nutrition and daily-living activities, such as toileting, bathing, and providing meals and water. In an ideal shift, nurses say they would spend about 3 percent of their time on these activities.

Redesigning care models: Adjusting how nurses spend their time

As we consider how to alleviate nursing workforce challenges, one area of intervention could be evaluating how current care models can be redesigned to better align nursing time to what has the most impact on patient care. Performing below-top-of-license or non-value-adding activities can create inefficiencies that lead to higher healthcare costs and nurse dissatisfaction. Rigorously evaluating whether tasks can be improved with technology or delegated to allow nurses to spend time on activities they find more valuable could help to reduce the time pressures felt by nurses. 5 “National guidelines for nursing delegation,” a joint statement by the NCSBN and American Nurses Association, April 1, 2019. In our analysis, we reviewed the activities nurses say they would ideally spend less time on and considered whether delegation and tech enablement of such tasks could free up nurses’ time.

Based on our analysis, we estimate that full or partial delegation of activities to roles including technicians, nursing assistants, patient-care technicians, food services, ancillary services, and other support staff, could reduce net nursing time by 5 to 10 percent during a 12-hour shift (Exhibit 3).

While nurses report wanting to spend more time overall on direct patient care, there are specific tasks that could be delegated both vertically and horizontally to ensure that the work nurses perform is at the top of their license and promotes professional satisfaction. Appropriate delegation requires training support staff and upskilling where appropriate, as well as evaluating systemwide resources that can be used where needed. For example, within direct patient care, nearly an hour could potentially be freed up by delegating tasks such as patient ambulation, drawing labs and starting IVs, transferring patients, and supporting patient procedures.

Full or partial delegation of activities to roles such as technicians and other support staff could reduce net nursing time by 5 to 10 percent during a 12-hour shift.

Tasks that are evaluated for redistribution to other clinical and non-clinical staff can also be considered as part of broader care-model redesign. Upskilling support staff across clinical and nonclinical roles can often result in overall better use of resources already in place across a health system.

Tech enablement

Based on our assessment, we estimate that a net 10 to 20 percent of time spent during a 12-hour shift is spent on activities that could be optimized through tech enablement. Investing in digital approaches that automate tasks (either completely or partially), rather than simply redistributing workload, could potentially free up valuable time for nurses (Exhibit 4).

Examples of tech enablement and delegation in practice

To determine the amount of time that could potentially be freed up over the course of a nurse’s shift, we used estimations based on best-in-class care delivery models from practice, innovative emerging technology from industry, and how easy it would be for health systems to implement the intervention (for example, cost and technological requirements).

Tech-enablement

• Robotic automatic-guided vehicles (AGVs) deliver equipment, food, and supplies throughout a hospital. 1 “Robots help nurses get the job done–with smiles and beeps,” Cedars Sinai, November 29, 2021.
• Robotic pill-picker machines select and deliver medicines throughout a hospital. 2 Jay Kiew, “The digital surgery: Humber River Hospital reinvents itself with AI & robotics,” Change Leadership, June 16, 2018.
• Virtual nurses monitor patients remotely, working alongside a bedside-care team comprising a bedside RN, bedside licensed vocational nurse, and virtual RN. 3 Giles Bruce, “Trinity Health plans to institute virtual nurses across its 88 hospitals in 26 states,” Becker’s Health IT, January 13, 2023.
• Ambient intelligence (that is, passive, contactless sensors embedded in a clinical setting to recognize movement or speech) reduces documentation workload and can continuously monitor patients. 4 Albert Haque, Arnold Milstein, and Li Fei-Fei, “Illuminating the dark spaces of healthcare with ambient intelligence,” Nature , September 9, 2020.
• Centralized training for roles such as transporters that can then be utilized in all areas of the hospital.
• Upskilling employees and modifying staffing models allow nurses to work in units where they are needed most (for example, non-critical-care nurses in critical-care departments).

For example, nurses spend 3 percent of their shifts on patient turning and repositioning. This task could be optimized through innovative “smart” hospital-bed technology, including bed-exit alarms, advanced therapy for redistributing pressure, integrated scales and measurements, and remote information on patient conditions. Voice-automated devices and smart beds can also equip patients with control and autonomy over their rooms and preferences (for example, shades, television, and lighting) without nurse intervention (see sidebar “Examples of tech enablement and delegation in practice”).

These interventions, however, can be costly and may not be appropriate solutions in every system. Healthcare organizations will need to assess the specific needs of nurses and patients to determine which interventions will have the most impact.

Healthcare organizations could also consider continuously evaluating the digital approaches they have implemented to ensure that the technology itself does not create redundancies or rework, introduce delays, or adversely increase workload. For example, 37 percent of nurses report that they do not have access to vital signs or telemetry machines that are integrated with electronic medical records for automatic documentation. This could explain why nurses say they could spend less time—about 30 percent less—documenting vital signs. Technology like scanners and automated vitals machines have been an effective way to streamline documentation. But nurses still report spending nearly 10 percent of their shift scanning medications into the patient record, documenting vitals and completed patient education, and drafting progress notes.

Nurse time saved through care-model changes and innovations can benefit patients and nurses—and contribute to building sustainable careers in healthcare

The impact of care-model redesign could range from improving workload sustainability to addressing a substantial portion of the projected 200,000 to 450,000 nursing gap. Our analysis finds a potential net time savings of 15 to 30 percent of a 12-hour shift, based on estimating the possible range of time reduced through delegation 6 “ANAs principles for delegation,” American Nurses Association, 2012. or tech enablement. 7 Mari Kangasniemi, Suyen Karki, Noriyo Colley, and Ari Voutilainen, “The use of robots and other automated devices in nurses' work: An integrative review,” International Journal of Nursing Practice , August 2019, Volume 25, Issue 4.

In our conservative estimate, there would be no additional opportunity to alleviate the potential nursing shortage, as health systems would reallocate the saved time to their current nursing staff for activities they say they would spend more time on, including time with patients, teaching peers, and investing in their growth and development (Exhibit 5). However, this reallocation of time could improve the sustainability of nursing careers in acute-care practice.

In our optimistic estimate, after reallocating time back to nurses, health systems could free up a 15 percent net time savings, which could translate to closing the nursing workforce gap by up to 300,000 inpatient nurses. Achieving this may require health systems to invest heavily in technology, change management, and workflow redesign.

Realizing these changes will require bold departures from healthcare organizations’ current state of processes. It will be critical for hospitals to bring both discipline and creativity to redesigning care delivery in order to effectively scale change and see meaningful time savings. Close collaboration beyond nursing is also paramount to ensure alignment across the care team and hospital functions including administration, IT, informatics, facilities, and operations. A comprehensive evaluation of redesign requirements can enable health systems to understand what is limiting care-model change (for example, policies, skill development, education). Investment in education and additional onboarding may be needed to upskill and train staff on expectations as work is shifted across roles. Partnering with tech companies and industry vendors in areas such as electronic-health-record platforms can accelerate innovation and implementation to build off existing tools and reduce implementation risks. Although the idea of change may be daunting, incorporating innovations in healthcare delivery could be a strategy for building a sustainable workload that could attract and retain nursing talent by allowing them to do more of what matters to them most: taking care of patients and one another.

Gretchen Berlin, RN , is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Washington, DC, office; Ani Bilazarian, RN , is a consultant in the New York office; Joyce Chang, RN , is an associate partner in the Bay Area office; and Stephanie Hammer, RN , is a consultant in the Denver office.

The authors wish to thank Katie Boston-Leary, RN, and the ANA Enterprise for their contributions to this article. The authors also wish to acknowledge and thank the entire healthcare workforce, including all of those on the front line.

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What is Nurse Burnout? How to Prevent It

6 min read • April, 25 2024

Nurse burnout is a serious job-related condition that can have major consequences for nurses and their patients. Unfortunately, burnout in nursing is on the rise, making it more important than ever to understand how to manage and prevent this condition. It's important to remember that burnout or compassion fatigue is a result of working conditions — not a failure or a lack of compassion or work ethic on your part. 

What Is Nurse Burnout?

Burnout is caused by unmanaged, chronic workplace stress. It can occur in any job or sector and results in the following symptoms,  according to the World Health Organization :

• Mental and physical exhaustion
• Mental distance from the job
• Cynicism about the job
• Reduced efficacy in the workplace

It's easy to see why this phenomenon is so common in nursing. Nurses often work long hours  performing tasks that are both physically and emotionally demanding. What's more, the work nurses perform can have important and even life-or-death consequences for patients, significantly adding to workplace stress.

What Is the Burnout Rate for Nurses?

How common is burnout in nursing? Very. Results from a 2020 survey indicate that  almost two-thirds of nurses (62%) experience burnout . It's especially common among younger nurses, with  69% of nurses under 25 reporting burnout . This issue affects all hospitals and health care systems in the U.S.

What Leads to Burnout in Nurses?

There are many causes of nurse burnout. Some causes are inherent to the job: providing compassionate care, working long hours, changing shift schedules, and being on your feet for hours at a time can all place serious demands on nurses. Other causes of nurse burnout derive from systemic challenges facing the health care system. For instance, aging baby boomers and the pandemic have increased the demand for nursing professionals. A  shortage of nurses  has, in turn, led to more or longer shifts and placed greater demands on individual nurses during each shift.

The pandemic has increased stress on nurses in other ways, too. Witnessing patient deaths — and being asked to provide moral and emotional support for those who die without their families nearby — is an emotional burden that often falls on nurses. And coping with the day-to-day reality of the pandemic while hearing skepticism about its existence from outside people can be disheartening to those on the front lines of health care.

What is Moral Injury?

Burnout can also be caused by moral injury - which is a psychological wound that happens when a person feels they must take actions, or witness actions, that violate their deeply held moral beliefs. The term also describes the challenges of knowing what kind of care your patients need but being unable to provide that care due to factors beyond your control.  The pandemic has also led to an increased amount of repeated moral injury , which is contributing to burnout in nurses.

Nurse Burnout Prevention and Management

Fortunately, despite the serious consequences of nurse burnout, it's possible to manage this condition by paying attention to your mental and physical well-being. The best way to manage nurse burnout is through prevention. Learning to identify the early warning signs is the first step toward avoiding a problem that puts you and your patients at risk.

Signs of Nurse Burnout

Early warning signs to be aware of include the following:

• You feel constantly overworked
• You regularly feel too tired to go to work
• You don't look forward to your job
• You feel unappreciated or like your work doesn't matter

While these are some of the most common warning signs, you may have other nurse burnout symptoms like trouble sleeping, tension in the body, or even feelings of depression.

How to Prevent Nurse Burnout

If you notice any of the early warning signs of nurse burnout, a few strategies can help you resolve it before it becomes a more serious problem. If you're already suffering burnout, these strategies can help you alleviate your symptoms and get back to enjoying your job and providing the best patient care possible:

• Rest : Getting enough sleep between shifts is crucial for nurses. If your current schedule won't allow you to get enough sleep, talk to your supervisor or whoever plans the shift schedule. Nurse burnout and patient safety go hand in hand, so it's important to be clear with your co-workers when you're experiencing burnout.  Find night shift nursing tips, including ways to fit rest and sleep into your schedule .
• Ask for help : Emotional support can help with the stress of workplace demands and the mental load of patient care. Make sure you have a sound support system at work, like co-workers to who you can vent your feelings, and consider contacting a therapist before your burnout becomes hard to manage.
• Get exercise : Physical activity has proven stress-alleviating effects. And improving your strength and cardiovascular fitness can make the physical demands of nursing less strenuous.
• Eat well : Make sure you're getting enough to eat before and during shifts and that the food is healthy. It's easy to get caught up in patient care and skip meals or eat junk food to save time. Taking time to buy or prepare nutritious meals at home and at work can help you stay focused and perform at your best.
• Take a break : Periodically disconnecting from work is important. It gives you a chance to unwind, relax, and recharge your physical and emotional reserves. Despite that, 55% of Americans don't use all of their paid vacation time. Don't be one of them. If the idea of taking time for yourself makes you feel guilty for leaving work or patients behind, remember that avoiding burnout will help you perform better when you are at work.
• Request training : Speak with your supervisors about training that can help you better cope with the demands of the job.

Mindfulness techniques and  moral resilience  — "the courage and confidence to confront distressful and uncertain situations by following and trusting values and beliefs" — will help you keep a healthy perspective on your work. These techniques can prevent or manage burnout by reminding you of what's out of your control and making it easier to maintain a sense of self-worth in the face of challenges or discouragement.

Avoiding Burnout Begins With Awareness

Burnout is a serious issue among nursing professionals. Fortunately, there are plenty of warning signs that individuals can spot in themselves and their colleagues. If you suspect that you or a fellow nurse are experiencing burnout, communicate with your manager so that changes can be made to your work schedule and situation before there’s a serious problem.

Visit our  Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ site  to find more wellness tips and resources.

Images sourced from Getty Images

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RiverStone Acquires Electric Insurance; Plymouth Rock Gets Renewal Rights

RiverStone International reports it has closed on its acquisition of Electric Insurance Co. and its two subsidiaries, Elm Insurance Co. and Electric Insurance Agency.

Electric Insurance is a Beverly, Massachusetts-domiciled insurer licensed in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Canada. Its owner, General Electric (GE), decided to sell the company for $333 million and exit the insurance business as part of its major restructuring begun in 2021 under which GE has transformed itself into three public companies focused on aviation, energy and healthcare.

RiverStone International, which specializes in acquiring and reinsuring legacy and discontinued businesses, will manage Electric’s legacy liability portfolios but will withdraw from personal lines in all states. The firm said the deal gives it a platform to pursue additional legacy acquisitions in North America.

Electric Insurance wrote the commercial insurance including workers’ compensation, auto and general and product liability exclusively for GE and personal lines insurance including auto, home, yacht and personal excess liability primarily for GE employees, retirees and their families. As of January 1, 2024, Electric no longer insured GE’s commercial business.

Electric has created a runoff plan for its personal lines business. The plan includes a multi-state renewal rights transaction agreement with Plymouth Rock Assurance, a Massachusetts-based insurer with experience in handling 15 renewal rights and replacement carrier transactions. Plymouth Rock writes in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

In Massachusetts alone, Plymouth Rock will have renewal rights to about 6,000 auto, 5,000 home and 1,770 personal liability policies representing a total of about $17 million in premium. It will arrange placement assistance for 45 yacht policies, a risk it does not write.

Elm Insurance Co. was formed by GE in 1983 as a Vermont captive insurer to provide Electric Insurance with management, accounting and other services. Electric Insurance Agency was formed in 1992 primarily to place business with the National Flood Program.

In 2006, Electric Insurance established a Canadian branch based in Toronto to write commercial direct auto and commercial general liability for General Electric. The branch also assumes 100% of the exposure of the Canadian policies written by ACE. In May 2021, Electric Insurance sold its Ireland subsidiary.

Operating in the UK company and Lloyd’s of London markets, Bermuda, and Europe, RiverStone International has transacted a variety of deals – from insurance and reinsurance portfolio transfers to company purchases, acquiring more than US$14.5billion of liabilities since 2010 and with around US$6.8 billion of total liabilities.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Massachusetts

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Written By Andrew G. Simpson

Simpson is a freelance writer and editor. He retired as Chief Content Officer for Wells Media Group in July, 2022 after 18 years with the company.

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Landing cutting-edge jobs becomes reality with new MSU computing technology degrees

Contact: Harriet Laird

STARKVILLE, Miss.—The future is bright for those interested in cutting-edge jobs in computing technologies, and Mississippi State is offering three new degree paths this fall to get students on their way to professional success.

MSU’s new Bachelor of Applied Science in Cybersecurity, Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence and Master of Applied Data Science offer students hands-on training in occupations growing much faster for the next 12 years than the average for all jobs.

Currently, the university has existing programs that include a Bachelor of Cybersecurity, Bachelor of Data Science and a Master of Cybersecurity and Operations.

“As a comprehensive public research university, we want to ensure all our programs teach innovative and current best practices and prepare our students to be career ready when they graduate,” said MSU’s David Shaw, provost and executive vice president. “Every day, we’re looking at the whole picture—analyzing employers’ needs and workforce demands to offer top-notch academic programs.”

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 377,500 openings through 2032, on average, in computer and information technology occupations. While many openings are due to employment growth, an aging and retiring workforce also is a contributor. The bureau reports the median annual wage at $104,420 as of 2023, significantly higher than the median annual wage of $48,060 for all occupations.

Also this fall, MSU is introducing three additional applied science bachelor’s degrees—business office technology, healthcare administration and public management. Applied science bachelor’s degree programs are ideal for those who have completed or are finishing a two-year college or military Associate of Applied Science degree.

Offering online, in-person and hybrid learning options, these degrees add flexibility for working adults and transfer students who have A.A.S. technical degrees in a variety of fields. Students in most of these programs will have the opportunity to gain credentials of value while earning their degree.

A graduate degree for teachers is a new addition as well. The Master of Arts in Teaching Elementary Level Alternate Route is specifically designed to address the state’s challenge of recruiting and retaining quality teachers. More than 100 public school districts have critical teacher shortages.

New Degree Programs: A Closer Look

—The B.A.S. in Cybersecurity is designed to equip students with the knowledge, skills and expertise to become cybersecurity analysts. This program ensures graduates are well-versed in cybersecurity theoretical aspects and possess hands-on skills required in defending organizations against cyber threats.

—Students pursuing the B.S. in Artificial Intelligence gain core theoretical knowledge and skills training to design and develop artificial intelligence systems. Data analytics, machine learning, robotics and more are the foundation of a degree preparing graduates for careers such as AI researcher and data scientist in technology and healthcare and many other industries.

—MSU is offering the Master of Applied Data Science focused toward working adults who may have a variety of bachelor’s degrees. While students learn foundational data science concepts, they also gain practical skills using real world datasets in many application domains. Careers for data scientists are innumerable—from agriculture and athletics to finance and healthcare.

—The B.A.S. in Business Office Technology prepares those holding business/technology A.A.S. degrees for work as office managers, administrative supervisors, IT administrators and more. It is delivered in both online and face-to-face formats, accommodating the preferences and schedules of a diverse population interested in pursuing a BOT degree.

—Those with health-related A.A.S. degrees can pursue MSU’s B.A.S. in Healthcare Administration at MSU-Meridian, where students are prepared to become managers in such settings as hospitals, private practices, pharmaceutical agencies, insurance companies and more. The curriculum includes study and skills training in such subjects as healthcare finance, law and management.

—MSU’s new B.A.S. in Public Management is specifically to advance the education and career options of professionals with existing A.A.S. degrees in public safety areas such as fire science, law enforcement or emergency medical/management services. Jobs for graduates include city or emergency manager, criminal justice administrator, fire management officer and others.

—A new graduate-level licensure program, the M.A. in Teaching Elementary Level Alternate Route prepares students for highly competent instruction in kindergarten through sixth grade. The MSU-Meridian coursework includes planning and managing learning, assessment and serving children with special needs. A one-year residency includes diagnosing reading problems and more.

Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters. Learn more at www.msstate.edu .

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