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Another
View: Creativity needed to recruit nursing students
Shelley
Conroy, the Salt lake Tribune
October 20, 2003
As
Weber
State
University
's
nursing program prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary Friday, the
program faces -- and continues to address -- challenges similar to those
that prompted its creation a half-century ago. The occasion is an
opportunity to consider how WSU and the entire nursing education system
will produce enough nurses to care for a growing number of elderly.
History is repeating itself, but the reasons have
changed. Whereas World War II and the Korean War siphoned off civilian
nurses, creating the nursing shortage of the late '40s and early '50s,
today's shortage is primarily because women have more career options.
Young girls are encouraged to become scientists, engineers, mathematicians
-- or any number of occupations where women once were scarce. While we
applaud women's unlimited career choices, the reality is fewer are
becoming nurses.
America
's
aging baby boomers, who will begin to require more health-care services,
compound the problem. Seniors 65 and older typically use health-care
resources 60-70 percent more than other groups. The problem will be
aggravated in the next 15 years as boomers reach their 80s -- about the
time half of
Utah
's
practicing nurses will retire.
In 1953, one approach to deal with the nursing shortage
was a novel experiment in nursing education.
Weber
College
was one of seven
U.S.
colleges that piloted a new associate (two-year) degree in nursing. Dr.
Mildred Montag, director of
Adelphi
College
's
School
of
Nursing
in
Brooklyn
,
N.Y.
,
proposed the idea because the three-year hospital-based diploma programs
and four-year university-based, bachelor's degree programs were slow to
replace the nurses who had gone to war.
The experiment was a success nationally and for Weber.
Now more than 885 schools offer associate-degree nursing programs, which
supply more than 60 percent of nursing graduates.
Weber
State
graduates approximately 240 associate degree nurses annually. Besides the
two-year degree, WSU offers a one-year licensed practical nurse
certificate for students who opt to graduate and join the workforce
quickly, and a four-year bachelor's program in preparation for nursing
management. This career-ladder system allows students to move easily from
one level to the next -- and rapidly into the job market at different
levels where they are needed. WSU offers this curriculum through distance
education at more than 13
Utah
sites, in response to requests from these communities for more nurses.
What does this worsening nursing shortage mean for you
and me? Nurses may have to work more hours, spreading their skills across
more patients -- leading to errors, burnout and poorer health outcomes.
Also, when you need to place ailing parents or a spouse in an
assisted-care facility, you might have to wait longer because there are
too few nurses to care for more residents. The shortage will force hard
choices about the availability, quality and cost of health care for all of
us.
WSU's nursing program has long partnered with
Utah
to meet the health care needs of its citizens. For example, in 1972 the
nursing program pioneered
Utah
's
only accredited distance nursing-education program. In 1993, the nursing
faculty developed one of the nation's first Internet-based associate
degree programs.
WSU's Dr. Ezekiel R. Dumke College of Health
Professions, which houses the nursing program, also partners with the
federal government. Last summer, the college received federal monies to
consult with neighboring states on ways to offer our nursing curriculum in
their rural communities. Additionally, last year the college became the
host site of the
Northern
Utah
Area
Health
Education
Center
to recruit more individuals for health careers in geographical areas with
a critical need.
To educate more nurses, additional funds are vital to
recruit and retain WSU nursing faculty. In these economic times, money for
new faculty is not readily available from traditional funding sources. We
are undertaking an initiative to create an endowment, using the income to
hire more nursing faculty. It is difficult to attract nurse educators, who
typically earn far less than their peers in private practice with a
master's degree. By the year 2005, experts predict a 22 percent vacancy
nationwide for nursing educators. We hope to offset the disparity with
these endowment funds, ensuring that as our faculty starts to retire, WSU
will continue its tradition of educational excellence.
The same kind of courage and creativity that Dr. Montag
exhibited 50 years ago is essential today to combat our nursing shortage.
We still have a long way to go to solve the dilemma, but partnerships and
initiatives like the ones at
Weber
State
's
Dumke
College
are a good start at making a difference in health care for Utahns.
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