LEWISTON – Cathy Case is a Lifeflight medical helicopter nurse and medic at Central Maine Medical Center. The 41-year-old mother of two provides care to patients as they’re transported.

Monique Hebert, 45, is a CMMC diabetes nurse. Also a mother of two, she teaches patients how to handle diabetes.

Both graduated years ago from the hospital’s nursing school.

Last month Case and Hebert became college students, again.

With the goal of turning their associate degrees into bachelor’s degrees, they and 16 other CMMC nurses are students of St. Joseph’s College in Standish.

A partnership between the college and the hospital means nurses can take courses where they work, at CMMC in Lewiston, at Bridgton Hospital and the Rumford Hospital. The three hospitals are owned by Central Maine Medical Family.

A St. Joseph’s instructor teaches from CMMC’s nursing school in Lewiston. The classes are teleconferenced to Rumford and Bridgton.

While many registered nurses have associate degree, there’s a national push for RNs to have four-year degrees.

Nurses said CMMC is making it easy for them to get a higher education. If they get a C or better, CMMC reimburses them for 75 percent of the tuition. Tuition can be paid through payroll deductions.

With the classes held where they work, “I didn’t have to go outside and find the course,” Case said. “CMMC made it impossible for us to say no.”

Hebert agreed. And having 75 percent of tuition reimbursed “is tremendous,” she said.

Sharon Kuhrt, director of CMMC’s school of nursing, said the program is being offered to their nurses “because we want to invest in our most valuable asset, our employees.”

A recent employee survey revealed that associate degree nurses were interested in getting four-year degrees, Kuhrt said. Because most work full time and have families, the hospital created a program to make it easy as possible for them.

Helping to create more four-year degree nurses won’t directly relieve the nursing shortage, Kuhrt said, since the students are already nurses. But it could help keep them from leaving the field. “Retaining them is important,” she said.

And with more education some may assume leadership roles, such as teaching nursing students, a big need. Out of 15 teaching posts at CMMC’s nursing school, there are three openings this fall, Kuhrt said.

Case said she decided to take college courses for the sake of learning, not to do something other than be a Lifeflight nurse.

“This is the job I want to do,” she said. “Why go for a bachelor’s degree when it’s not going to make that much of a difference?” She answered her question by saying people should be lifelong learners.

“When people say, ‘What do I need to know that? I’m never going to use that,’ it drives me crazy,” Case said.

She said she likes the idea of getting her four-year degree, then her master’s degree. She’s thinking about someday becoming an anesthesia nurse in the operating room, which requires a master’s degree. That’s one higher-education job that requires direct patient care, something Case said she does not want to give up.

Hebert said she loves teaching patients about diabetes care and prevention. “I love education. I love to learn. … I told myself once my girls had grown up I would head back and get my degree. Eventually I want to get my bachelor’s and my master’s and go for a nurse practitioner.”

Like Case, she said in the short-term a four-year degree would not impact her job. “But it would give me more opportunity,” Hebert said. “It may open some doors that right now are closed.”