The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Nursing shortage presents a challenge
College programs filled to capacity as mismatch worsens
The need for nurses is clear. There are plenty of people interested in filling the positions. But connecting the two has not been easy.
Health care continues to be the state’s fastest-growing job market. Connecticut’s health care and social assistance market saw an increase of 4,300 jobs last year, second only to manufacturing, and health care has been at or near the top for years. But local nursing programs have found themselves part of a national trend that sees applicant pools for college programs far outnumbering openings, even as the need for graduates continues to grow.
“There are a lot of applicants going to schools of nursing and only so many spots they can take, and that decreases and limits the number of nurses coming out of the schools in order for us to back fill the (retiring) baby boomers,” said MaryEllen Kosturko, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Bridgeport Hospital.
Many of the needs are in specialty areas like the operating room or intensive care unit, said Kosturko, who is also chair of the Committee for Nurse Executives at the Connecticut Hospital Association.
While many hospitals have worked to improve development programs, recruitment from fouryear nursing programs remains a priority as well as a challenge.
Maxed-out programs
Colleges and universities throughout Connecticut are seeing thousands of applicants vying for a limited number of spots in their nursing programs, most of which have between 80 and 120 available spots.
Almost 8,000 candidates applied for a total of 2,220 program openings statewide in 2016, according to a report from the state Board of Examiners in Nursing.
Fairfield University had more than 1,400 applicants for 120 spaces, which resulted in a high number of rejection letters going out, said Meridith Kazer, dean of Fairfield University’s School of Nursing.
“We actually do need to turn away qualified applicants,” Kazer said. “We’ve turned away students with a 4.0 GPA. That’s how competitive it was.”
The disparity, which has grown in recent years, has schools looking for creative ways to expand programs. Fairfield has moved nursing into a larger building to support more classes; the building also features simulation centers to create in-house clinical education opportunities, as well.
A major focus of nursing education is in the practice area, including hospitals and community agencies, which has a limited number of spaces for students to practice their nursing skills. As a result, many schools are unable to take on larger numbers of students.
More difficult, however, is finding enough instructors.
“In addition to the workforce having a shortage of nurses at the bedside, we are also seeing a shortage nationally of faculty for nursing programs,” Kosturko said.
The lack of qualified instructors directly affects the number of students a program can take in, leading schools to undertake nationwide searches to keep studentteacher ratios smaller.
To teach within a nursing program, instructors are often required to have a doctoral degree. “Only a very small percentage of nurses go on toward their doctoral degree because they’re expensive and the clinical salaries are often competitive with the academic salaries, so to invest in a doctoral education you want to make sure that you get that return on your investment,” Kazer said.