Nursing Shortage Forces Local Colleges to Get Creative

In the face of a national nursing shortage, local colleges around the country are getting creative in finding new ways to educate nursing students. National figures show that 32,000 nursing school applicants are turned away every year because of a teacher shortage. Enrollment in entry-level nursing programs increased 5 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing but the profession still faces a shortage: nurse educators.

AACN President Jeanette Lancaster recently noted: "To stabilize the nursing workforce, the federal government and other stakeholders must focus on increasing nursing school enrollments at the baccalaureate level." "Besides adding to the RN workforce, graduates of baccalaureate nursing programs are much more likely to pursue graduate education and achieve the credentials needed to serve as nurse educators."

At the local level Clarkson College in Omaha, Nebraska is making a concerted effort to increase nursing enrollments. More part-time faculty is being brought on to teach the 500 students, and class sizes are being allowed to drift upward which unfortunately can be a stress on clinical practice space. "In that area we're getting more creative, too, in terms of night, evening, weekends - things that not everybody really wants but those are possibilities and we're utilizing them," said Clarkson's Linda Christianson and reported by KETV.

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