According to the South Dakota Nursing Workforce 2018 statistics, the supply of nurses in South Dakota has been steadily increasing. From 2014 to 2018, the total number of actively licensed nurses grew from 19,761 to 22,814. But these gains aren’t expected to be sufficient to alleviate South Dakota’s nursing shortage, which mirrors the shortage happening across much of the nation. One glaring example is with certified nurse-midwives (CNM), where from 2017 to 2018, only two CNMs were added in South Dakota.
Like with most other states, nurses in South Dakota usually find themselves working in a hospital, especially registered nurses (RN). However, most licensed practical nurses (LPN) work in a nursing home or extended care facility while many certified nurse practitioners (CNP) can be found in an ambulatory care employment setting.
To learn more about becoming a nurse in South Dakota, keep reading as we discuss accreditation, licensing, and academic nursing programs.
Featured Nursing Schools in South Dakota
The state of South Dakota is home to 13 nursing programs. While having this sort of selection is great for prospective nurses, it can sometimes make it harder to figure out which school to apply to and attend. To help with the school search process, we’ve created the following rankings, one for undergraduate and one for graduate South Dakota nursing schools. These lists are helpful because they can provide a good starting point for more in-depth research. They can also help identify the best school to fit your needs, whether you plan to become a nurse for the first time or advance an existing nursing career.
We created these lists by taking information from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). To learn more about our methods for creating both lists, check the bottom of the page for additional details.
Number of undergraduate-level nursing programs offered | 0 |
Undergraduate tuition | $7,451 |
Undergraduate graduation rate | 58% |
Undergraduate retention rate | 77% |
Percent of undergrad students awarded financial aid | 95% |
Number of undergraduate-level nursing programs offered | 0 |
Undergraduate tuition | $3,451 |
Undergraduate graduation rate | 43% |
Undergraduate retention rate | 57% |
Percent of undergrad students awarded financial aid | 91% |
Number of undergraduate-level nursing programs offered | 0 |
Undergraduate tuition | $19,995 |
Undergraduate graduation rate | 27% |
Undergraduate retention rate | 64% |
Percent of undergrad students awarded financial aid | 100% |
Number of undergraduate-level nursing programs offered | 0 |
Undergraduate tuition | $26,700 |
Undergraduate graduation rate | 60% |
Undergraduate retention rate | 71% |
Percent of undergrad students awarded financial aid | 100% |
Number of undergraduate-level nursing programs offered | 0 |
Undergraduate tuition | $32,488 |
Undergraduate graduation rate | 70% |
Undergraduate retention rate | 85% |
Percent of undergrad students awarded financial aid | 100% |
Number of undergraduate-level nursing programs offered | 0 |
Undergraduate tuition | $7,451 |
Undergraduate graduation rate | 56% |
Undergraduate retention rate | 76% |
Percent of undergrad students awarded financial aid | 92% |
Number of undergraduate-level nursing programs offered | 0 |
Undergraduate tuition | $2,640 |
Undergraduate graduation rate | 11% |
Undergraduate retention rate | 100% |
Percent of undergrad students awarded financial aid | 82% |
Number of undergraduate-level nursing programs offered | 0 |
Undergraduate tuition | $3,016 |
Undergraduate graduation rate | 45% |
Undergraduate retention rate | 73% |
Percent of undergrad students awarded financial aid | 88% |
Number of undergraduate-level nursing programs offered | 0 |
Undergraduate tuition | $2,016 |
Undergraduate graduation rate | 11% |
Undergraduate retention rate | 63% |
Percent of undergrad students awarded financial aid | 99% |
Number of undergraduate-level nursing programs offered | 0 |
Undergraduate tuition | $25,126 |
Undergraduate graduation rate | 51% |
Undergraduate retention rate | 71% |
Percent of undergrad students awarded financial aid | 100% |
Number of graduate-level nursing programs offered | 0 |
Graduate Tuition | $6,525 |
Number of graduate-level nursing programs offered through distance education | 0 |
Number of graduate-level nursing programs offered | 0 |
Graduate Tuition | $7,825 |
Number of graduate-level nursing programs offered through distance education | 0 |
Nursing Accreditation in South Dakota
To become a licensed nurse, graduation from an accredited nursing program is almost always required. Accreditation is a process in which an independent organization verifies whether a particular school or program meets minimum education quality standards. This is especially important for a profession such as nursing, where human lives are potentially at stake. All the schools listed on NursingDegrees are accredited, but for schools not listed, you can take a look at the following accrediting organizations to check for yourself.
- Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN)
- Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE)
- Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Education Programs (COA)
South Dakota Nursing Licensure
Those seeking to take on additional responsibilities or focus on a particular specialization by becoming an NP or APRN usually complete the relevant graduate credits. This often means earning a master’s or doctoral degree. An active RN license can be a prerequisite for becoming an APRN or NP. Certain types of APRN roles, such as an NP, can require passage of a national certification exam, such as those offered by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners – Certification Program or the American Nurses Credentialing Center. For a more detailed list of licensure requirements for South Dakota nurses, please visit the South Dakota Board of Nursing website.
South Dakota Nursing organizations
A career in nursing can mean the learning never ends. Nurses often benefit from making connections with other like-minded professionals. To facilitate both these goals, South Dakota has several nursing organizations open to both nursing students and seasoned professionals. Here are a few of the more prominent ones:
- South Dakota Nurses Association (SDNA):
SDNA focuses on representing the professional interests of registered nurses in South Dakota. The SDNA also works to increase the visibility of nurses within the state. Benefits of membership can include policy advocacy, career advice and networking opportunities from special events.
- South Dakota Students Nurses Association (SDSNA):
The SDSNA is unique in that it’s a pre-professional organization devoted to the interests of nursing students. The SDSNA can offer opportunities for nursing students to become involved in other professional nursing organizations. Skills learned while in the SDSNA can include making the most of career development events and taking advantage of workplace leadership roles
- South Dakota Emergency Nurses Association (SD ENA):
To help emergency care nurses take full advantage of what their career has to offer, the SD ENA works on promoting advocacy, education and leadership development. Specifically, the SD ENA can offer scholarships to nursing students, hosts an annual conference, publishes a newsletter and offers volunteer opportunities.
South Dakota-Specific Continuing Education
Unlike most other states, South Dakota does not have continuing education requirements for licensed nurses. However, this assumes that licensed nurses are engaging in clinical practice. Therefore, if a licensed nurse cannot verify that they completed at least 140 hours of nursing practice in a 12-month period during the previous six years, or at least 480 hours in the prior six years, then the nurse must typically complete a refresher course consisting of 160 hours of self-study and supervised clinical practice. To learn more about these requirements, please check out the South Dakota Board of Nursing’s website.
Hospitals in South Dakota
Hospitals can play an important role for nursing students. They are often a preferred place of employment, especially for recent graduates new to the nursing field. But also important is the role hospitals play in educating future nurses. It’s often hospitals that host the practicums or clinicals that nurses use to gain hands-on training while in school. Hospitals may also serve as opportunities for internships or fellowships for nurses engaged in graduate-level study. Future nurses of South Dakota are likely to become familiar with the following hospitals:
- Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center (Sioux Falls): The Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center is the flagship healthcare facility of the Avera Health System. This hospital serves patients from the Upper Midwest. Facilities and areas of specialization can include an Accredited Chest Pain Center with PCI, Careflight emergency air transport, Genomic medicine and a Level IIIB Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
- Sanford USD Medical Center Sioux Falls (Sioux Falls): Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls is one of the larger hospitals in the state, with more than 500 beds, a Level II Trauma Emergency Care center and approximately 4,000 employees. It is also a teaching hospital for the University of South Dakota’s Sanford School of Medicine.
- Regional Health Rapid City Hospital (Rapid City): Regional Health Rapid City Hospital is located in Rapid City which is the primary base of operations for the Regional Health healthcare system. Serving the more than 300,000 people of Black Hills, Regional Health Rapid City Hospital can offer a variety of specialties, including Nutrition Services, Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, Dentistry, Infectious Disease and Pulmonology.
Methodology
Using the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), we gathered data for 6,758 United States institutions. We then filtered that list of schools by state and analyzed the data for each state with two different methodologies, in order to create two different lists: our undergraduate list, based on 11 ranking criteria, and our graduate list, based on 9 ranking criteria.
Final data for the 2016-17 school year was used for these rankings. Schools that did not provide data for all of the required ranking criteria were disqualified from that ranking.
The 11 criteria for the undergraduate school ranking were as follows:
- Number of associate- and bachelor’s-level degree programs offered to nursing-related majors
- Number of associate- and bachelor’s-level nursing-related degree programs offered via distance education
- Variety of associate- and bachelor’s-level nursing-related degree programs offered
- Tuition
- Retention rate
- Graduation rate
- Average amount of federal grant aid awarded to full-time first-time undergraduates
- Percent of full-time first-time undergraduates awarded any financial aid
- Credit offerings (Military, Dual, Life Experience, AP)
- Services (Career Counseling, Placement Services)
- Availability of tuition plans (Guaranteed, Prepaid, Payment, Other)
The graduate school ranking scored schools based on 9 criteria, different from the undergraduate list. These 9 criteria were as follows:
- Number of master’s- and doctoral-level degree programs offered to nursing-related majors
- Number of master’s- and doctoral-level nursing-related degree programs offered via distance education
- Variety of master’s- and doctoral-level nursing-related degree programs offered
- Tuition
- Retention rate
- Graduation rate
- Credit offerings (Military, Dual, Life Experience, AP)
- Services (Career Counseling, Placement Services)
- Availability of tuition plans (Guaranteed, Prepaid, Payment, Other)
All schools were scored on a 10-point scale for each of the points listed above. Individual data point scores were then multiplied by their respective weights, and the scores were added together, for a maximum possible score of 10 points.
NOTE: Schools’ tuition amounts are based on 2016-17 undergraduate and graduate data reported to the National Center for Education Statistics. The actual cost of tuition may vary.
Featured Online Colleges in South Dakota for 2018-19 Methodology
Some state pages have a list of featured schools instead of rankings. This happens when not enough schools meet the criteria described in the best South Dakota schools methodology above — the number of schools is too small for us to do a credible and statistically significant ranking. Because there are still some schools that do meet the criteria, we’ve chosen to highlight them in a featured schools list.
Sources
- American Hospital Directory, Accessed September 2019, https://www.ahd.com/
- Research at Avera, Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center (Sioux Falls), Accessed October 2019, https://www.avera.org/innovation-research/
- Regional Health, Accessed October 2019, https://regionalhealth.org/
- Sanford USD Medical Center, Accessed October, 2019, https://www.sanfordhealth.org/locations/sanford-usd-medical-center
- South Dakota Board of Nursing, Accessed September 2019, https://doh.sd.gov/boards/nursing/
- South Dakota Emergency Nurses Association, Accessed October 2019, https://www.sdena.org/
- South Dakota Nurses Association, Accessed October 2019, https://sdnursesassociation.nursingnetwork.com/
- South Dakota Nursing Workforce, 2019 Supply and Employment Characteristics, Accessed September 2019, https://doh.sd.gov/boards/nursing/documents/2019WFReport.pdf
- South Dakota Student Nurses Association, Accessed October 2019, https://www.sdnsa.com/