The new degree at the Machias university joins a separate program that for the last three years has allowed nursing students to complete their basic classes in Machias, then finish the second half in Orono. That isn’t always an option for local students in the close-knit community, according to Megan Walsh, dean and campus director at Machias. Olivia Sokoloski, another new student in the program, has been a certified nursing assistant since high school and works at a local nursing home. Within the next five years, the state is expected to be short more than 2,800 nurses, according to the Cypress Group study. That has created a “dire need,” according to Shannon Gauvin, who directs nursing at the University of Maine at Augusta.