The nursing numbers in college enrollment
The nursing numbers in college enrollment
They’re dwindling, but can they be reversed?
No matter where you turn these days you’re bound to come across an article on the subject of nurses. The articles might vary in how they approach the subject, but the theme is usually the same: Nurses are in short supply and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
According to Lucy Leusch, director of graduate and professional admissions at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing of Emory University in Atlanta, "Nursing problems exist for two reasons. One reason is health care has moved outside the hospital, so the demand for nurses in HMOs, home care agencies, nursing homes, community clinics, and outpatient facilities is really great. As a result, the shortage in hospitals is really terrible. And the second reason is the aging work force."
Not too long ago, it seemed that nursing was a staple in the typical career listing and an especially good option for women. Somewhere along the way, even though men, too, have embraced nursing careers, the nursing profession has lost out to other options, some of them outside the health care field.
As women joined their male counterparts climbing the corporate ladder to success, the more traditional career fields found themselves with thinning ranks.
As a result, notes Leusch, "a lot of nursing schools have purposefully downsized their BSN programs because there aren’t enough nurses to fill the faculty spots." Then, too, there is some intra-industry competition for training spots. "Schools are having difficulty finding clinical spots in the community and the hospitals," says Leusch. "We’re competing with medical students and PAs [physician’s assistants] for clinical placements, so we have to have lower enrollments."
Despite this, Emory’s nursing school has between 65 and 70 new undergraduate enrollees this year. "We’re in a good way here," she affirms. "We’ve stabilized undergraduate enrollment, which is surprising because across the country, BSN enrollment is really declining."
What is Emory University doing to help reverse the shortage? For starters, explains Leusch, "We’re doing some innovative things in partnering with hospitals, both to recruit students and to help [the hospitals] employ nurses."
One program is known as NEAT, or Nursing Employment and Tuition. It’s a partnership and scholarship program with the Emory Healthcare System and has been in place for several years. "Emory Healthcare pays 50% of tuition for 20 incoming BSN students for two years," she explains. In return, the students agree to work within the Emory Healthcare system for the same amount of time.
"If we can partner with hospitals in the area, we can both help our enrollment and help them with the nursing shortage problem." Emory, she adds, is trying to do this with as many hospitals in the Atlanta metropolitan area as it can.
Poor perception of nursing persists
Currently, however, the perception of nursing in the community is still very poor. Leusch says that faculty at Emory contend the 1997 media articles about nurses who couldn’t find work had an impact, and "there’s also the old lingering stereotype about a nurse being someone who gives a shot and changes a bedpan."
The faculty at Emory, she continues, is very interested in working in secondary and even elementary schools to educate kids about the nursing profession and its positive aspects. It won’t be too long before those children are choosing careers, and when faced with a choice between a 9-to-5 job with a high salary and nursing, many go for the money.
"Nursing is a tough job," she says. "There’s the idea that nurses are on call all the time and don’t have a life. Graduates of a master’s program in almost any other discipline could make more money and work much less."
Even so, hope is on the horizon. A recent informal survey found that the vast majority of children today, when asked, said they would rather be a teacher than a rock star. With luck, maybe service is coming back into vogue and can reverse the current trend in nursing.
[For more information, contact:
• Lucy Leusch, Director of Graduate and Profes-sional Admissions, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, 531 Asbury Circle, Atlanta, GA 30322. Telephone: (404) 727-7980.]
Related reading
• Buerhaus P, Staiger D, Auerbach D. Implications of an aging registered nurse workforce. JAMA 2000: 283:2,948-2,954. Web site: http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v283n22/abs/joc91904.html.
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