Nurse Educators In Demand

It was recently brought to my attention that there are currently 1,100 unfilled budgeted faculty nursing positions nationally. Donna Snelson, chairwoman of the Misericordia College of nursing department feels the pressure, with positions currently open and an expected 64% replacement need in nurse educators over the next 5 years.

Trying to address a nursing educator shortage is not a simple problem to solve, simply because it takes a special person to be an educator. The nursing profession itself is more of a trained skillset, but to be an educator -- or better yet, a GOOD educator, it takes knowledge, heart, willingness to work for less and a desire to continue to learn.

Wyoming Valley Health Care System vice president of human resources Jim Carmody expressed his concern over shortage of nurse educators in an article by TimesLeader.com

"There are not enough teachers in the local schools but more than enough qualified applicants. They are not at teaching capacity," Carmody said. "Each year, we take two of our existing nurses with bachelor's degrees and pay for them to join the teaching ranks."

Educational institutions are learning quickly that in order to secure qualified nurse educators that they'll need to loosen the reigns by hiring part time intructors, offer flexible schedules and provide additional incentives to keep them on the payroll.

Will this help? Enrollment is rising for these new alternative education opportunies. With flexible classes, online training and fast track certifications we can see that there is a concerted effort to address the nursing shortage crisis.

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