Forum examines nursing shortage

[cougarnurse]

Thought this was appropriate, in light of the more recent stories: "Forum examines nursing shortage." May 31, 2009. NYSUT: A Union of Professionals. www.nysut.org

It's tough to take on the nursing shortage when thousands of candidates are turned away from nursing programs, said Brenda Sheingold, an RN and visiting professor at George Washington University.

Just five years ago, 125,000 nursing candidates were unable to enroll because of faculty shortages and program cuts, and that number is growing, she said.

Faculty shortages can be blamed on low pay and increased teaching loads, Sheingold said recently to nurses attending NYSUT's annual Health Care Professionals Forum.

"Nursing colleges and universities across the country are struggling to expand enrollment levels to meet the rising demand for nursing care," the American Association of Colleges of Nursing reported in April, calling the situation a "health care crisis."

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the health care sector of the American economy is growing, despite significant job losses in nearly all major industries.

"As the largest segment of the health care work force, nurses will likely be recruited to fill a large portion of these new positions," the nursing association said.

Yet hiring freezes, faculty shortages and lack of classroom capacity all contribute to a small pool of new nurses.

To help produce more nursing faculty, Angela Kahn of the United Federation of Teachers suggested nurses be given life credit to help them earn their teaching degrees and time off with pay to help them complete their Ph.D. Also, adding online nursing courses would help.

Cora Shillingford, a visiting nurse with the UFT Federation of Nurses, said studies by the American Federation of Teachers show "people have chosen not to come into the profession, and nurses have left the profession because of the conditions we work under."

Sheingold said more women are now choosing to become doctors rather than nurses.

Miriam Lynn, a Nyack school nurse, member of the Nyack Teachers Association and NYSUT's Health Care Professional of the Year, said unions advocating for health care professionals help improve quality of care and wages.

Jeannie May, a visiting nurse with the UFT Federation of Nurses, said the union "acts as a ballast against a behemoth organization."

NYSUT and its largest higher education affiliates, United University Professions and the Professional Staff Congress, are seeking funding for more faculty at state and city universities.

Currently the unions are trying to convince administrators at SUNY New Paltz to reverse its plan to phase out its nursing program.

There is also what Sheingold called the "global issue" of foreign nurses coming to the United States to practice. In 1994, 9 percent of RNs here were educated in other countries; 15 percent were in 2006, she said.

When nurses leave their countries for work in the U.S. or Europe, their home countries then suffer from a shortage of nurses, she said. However, the income they send home to their families helps sustain the economy in poorer places.

The future of nursing, she said, will come in part from jobs in managed and community health centers and retail clinics.

More investment needs to be made for school nurses, she said, because "they're delivering so much primary care" to students.