News
December 10, 2007
Nursing students turned away; Lack of faculty hinders growth in nursing field: Survey
Melanie Evans
10 December 2007
Modern Healthcare, Volume 37; Number 43
(c) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Nursing supply and demand continues to work against hospital administrators, newly released figures show.
Nursing schools, constrained by a lack of faculty, still struggle to boost the supply of nurses as healthcare providers continue to seek the skilled, sought-after professionals, according to the data.
Schools rejected some 30,709 qualified applications from students seeking four-year bachelor's degrees in nursing in 2007, according to preliminary findings from a yearly survey by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, or AACN.
The results, though not surprising, may still be sobering in light of projections released separately by federal employment officials last week on how many jobs will be created. Nursing will add more jobs than any other occupation between 2006 and 2016, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said. And that does not count openings created by nurses who retire, change jobs or exit the labor force. Demand will add roughly 587,000 jobs during the decade, while departing nurses will create another 413,000 openings in the same period, the agency said.
Other data from a National League for Nursing, or NLN, annual survey support the AACN enrollment figures. In 2006, the year for which the most recent figures are available, qualified applications to diploma, associate degree and bachelor's degree programs increased by more than 25%, but roughly 28% were rejected, according to the New York-based NLN.
Bachelor's degree nursing schools typically account for less than half of nursing-student enrollment, the NLN's figures show. Still, figures from the Washington-based AACN offer one measure of efforts to address the nation's nursing shortage.
Enrollment in bachelor's degree nursing schools increased for the seventh consecutive year by 5% in 2007, the AACN's preliminary figures show. That's down from 7.6% a year earlier and a peak of 16.6% in 2003. Baccalaureate program graduates also continued to grow by 7.4% though at a far slower rate than the 18.4% increase reported in 2006. The figures are preliminary and calculated from 427 schools that reported figures in 2006 and 2007.
The association urged members last week to lobby Congress to include roughly $167 million for nurse workforce development as lawmakers wrestle over the Labor-HHS-Education 2008 appropriations bill.
Sue Hassmiller, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation senior program officer, attributed recent years' rising enrollment, in part, to nursing's increased visibility and the nation's economy. But for schools to capitalize on would-be students' interest and meet healthcare's demand, the nation must address demand for faculty, Hassmiller said.
The foundation unveiled last week in Washington a $10 million grant to the AARP to fund the Center to Champion Nursing in America, which will push for state and federal funds to tackle the nurse faculty shortage.
"If we are going to improve the quality of hospital care and nursing care at the bedside, we need to find ways to fill the pipeline," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and chief executive officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, at a news briefing about the grant. "We believe this center will reach that goal."
Bachelor's degrees in nursing, though less common, have won support from some experts who argue the education better prepares students to care for increasingly acute patients, and provides the educational foundation necessary to pursue academic careers. In Oregon, a handful of community colleges and the Oregon Health & Sciences University agreed to jointly offer students seeking a nursing associate's degree a chance to opt instead to continue for a bachelor's degree in nursing. The effort won't boost the overall number of Oregon nurses, but will hopefully produce nurses better prepared for leadership or academia, said Saundra Theis, interim dean of the university's School of Nursing. Roughly 45% to 55% of the 2006 inaugural class chose the bachelor's degree option, she said.
