Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Hospitals across the nation are experiencing shortages of nurses, but the cause could lie in a shortage of nursing school instructors.
As the majority of teachers across the country will retire within the next 10 years, the KU School of Nursing is preparing graduate students to not only practice, but also fill the empty teaching positions.
Cynthia Teel, associate dean for the graduate nursing program, said she recognized that the shortages could cause significant problems.
“To be faculty, you really need to have a graduate, masters or doctoral degree,” Teel said. “That’s been difficult to enroll students in those because we don’t have enough faculty members. So we’re worsening our own already challenging problem.”
Andrea D’Achiardi, Shawnee junior, practices on a maniquin during a nursing skills lab in the School of Nursing at the KU Center. Nurses are still in high demand, but the Medical Center may have to cut the number of nursing students enrolled if proposed budget cuts happen.
The school is dealing with a significant budget shortfall, which is affecting its ability to hire new faculty, Teel said.
Christina Waggoner, Overland Park junior, has been in the school for one semester. She said her teachers didn’t emphasize the faculty shortage as much as the general shortage of nurses.
But students are interested in practicing rather than teaching. Enrollment for the school increased by 126 percent from 2004 to 2008, Teel said.
“An abundance would not really be as important as having a few really good, available nursing teachers,” Waggoner said.
The average salary of a nurse practitioner with a master’s degree is about $81,500, and the average salary of a nursing teacher with the same degree is about $73,500, Teel said.
“When we’re in a stressed economic market where people are losing their jobs, that salary difference is significant,” Teel said.
Kadee Treadwell, Olathe freshman, decided she wanted to be a neonatal nurse before looking at salary figures.
“It’s not the highest-paid nursing, of course, but it’s what I want to do,” Treadwell said.
After earning her nursing degree, Treadwell plans to practice for about eight years, and then teach nursing classes.
“Why not teach if you know the material and how to do things?” Treadwell said. “Just go ahead and take a few more years of school and then you’re helping out the whole shortage on teaching.”
Although Treadwell won’t apply for the school until next school year, she said she was worried because enrollment was competitive.
Nursing schools around the country have to be selective because they do not have enough faculty to allow everyone to be admitted, Teel said. Last year, more than 40,000 applicants were turned away.
If the budget continues to decrease, the number of students admitted to graduate programs will also decrease, Teel said.
Teel said students preparing to enter the school would still receive the educational benefits the school had been known for.
“We have the faculty we need in order to continue to provide quality programming,” Teel said.
— — Edited by Grant Treaster
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