Nursing school rejects, take heart: it's not you

[cougarnurse]

Another story re: lack of teachers: Nursing school rejects, take heart: It's not you | Jacksonville.com

Inserting a catheter into a medical mannequin, a group of Florida Community College at Jacksonville nursing students begin to talk their futures.

With a shortage of nurses, none of them worry about finding a job. Some want to get their master's degrees so they can earn more money. But the one thing few of them want to do is teach.

"There's not enough money in it," first-term student Holly Smith said. "I'll make way more in the field than I could teaching."

"I might consider teaching later on in life," student Elmedina Halilovic interjected.

"Please do!" FCCJ nursing instructor Stacey Burns yelled across the room. "I need help!"

The shortage of faculty is one of the main reasons there is a shortage of nurses in the health-care industry. About two-thirds of all qualified applicants to nursing programs in North Florida are turned away. Schools would love to accept more, but they are bound by student-faculty ratio requirements.

Mostly, it's about pay. Starting faculty with master's degrees can make $45,000 to $65,000, but out in the field the same graduates can get up to $90,000.

Nursing is one of the few job fields today that is still open for hiring. Some areas of nursing are seeing 10 to 20 percent of their needed positions vacant, according to a report by the Florida Center for Nursing.

There is a need for nurses locally, but Debra Hernke, chief nursing officer at Mayo Clinic, believes the need is even greater in other parts of Florida.

As baby boomers retire from the workforce in the next 10 years, a greater number of nurses will be required for the influx of patients. At the same time, baby boomers working as nurses will also be retiring.

The nursing shortage could have a huge impact on patients' health now, too. As JU Dean of Nursing Judith Forker said, nurses aren't just glorified assistants.

"Nurses are the ones doing tests and checking a patient's status," she said. "They are the ones who know when something is wrong and how to act quickly to solve problems."

With jobs available, students are flocking to nursing programs at FCCJ, University of North Florida, St. Johns River Community College and Jacksonville University. And they have plenty of competition.

In 2006-07, 42 percent of the 25,357 qualified students applying to nursing programs statewide were turned away, according to the Florida Center for Nursing. In North Florida, 65 percent of the 4,610 qualified applicants didn't get in.

Accreditation and Florida Board of Nursing standards mandate a 12-to-1 student-faculty ratio for clinical classes and a 36-to-1 ratio for classroom instruction. Without increases in faculty, there can't be increases in the number of students.

Full-time nursing faculty vacancy rates for Florida during were about 3 to 8 percent for Northeast Florida and 6 to 11 percent statewide in 2007.

Schools say they can't hire more faculty because of budget cuts, hiring freezes and the job pool. And administrators say they can't afford to offer starting salaries that are competitive with other professional opportunities.

UNF offers nursing faculty about $65,000 for a nine-month starting salary. FCCJ offers $46,500.

"I heard some nurses make $90 an hour in some fields," Smith said during her class work. "I think [her instructor is] very valuable, but I don't think Miss Burns makes that much."

Burns lets out a big laugh.

"Oh, that's funny," she said. "I needed a good laugh."

Statewide, only 103 master's students specializing in nursing education and 32Ph.D. students graduated in 2006-07, according to the FCN report, and there were 144 faculty vacancies. Very few students were turned away from the educator specialization: Only 5.5 percent of master's applicants were rejected.

The problem might be getting worse, too.

About half of all nursing faculty in Florida are between the ages of 50 and 60, which will mean a lot of retirements over the next 10 years.

"When I started teaching so many years ago, you'd look around and everybody was my age," UNF Dean of Nursing Pam Chally said. "The problem is that today everybody is still my age."

Administrators see pay increases as the remedy.

Chally suggests a starting bonus of $10,000 to $20,000 for new faculty to improve recruitment. UNF is looking at funds from the Legislature or private organizations to help pay for the bonus.

FCCJ has been able to up its starting salary by $7,000 more than the faculty union standard because hospitals have chipped in with money to address the problem.

Barbara Darby, president of FCCJ's North Campus, said the school hopes to lobby state legislators to help pay for higher salaries, selling it as an economic development issue.

Asking local health-care companies to help pay salaries is one option, but it's a tricky one. Hospitals and other companies already give generously, Chally said, and the schools don't believe it's appropriate to keep relying on them.

The First Coast Nurse Leaders, a consortium of educators and health care providers, is working on a program to help nurses work as adjunct professors while still working in the professional field, but in today's economy, who will ultimately foot the bill is the big question.

To recruit educators, JU's Forker suggests highlighting the other benefits of teaching: the stable hours and low-stress environment can be appealing compared to working long hours and holidays in hospitals and clinics.

Chally said whenever she notices students who appear to be natural teachers, she tries to encourage them to think about academia.

"Teaching is one of those things," she said, "where once you get it under your skin it's hard to get out."

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