Faculty Shortage

As nursing students around the country go back to school this fall, I can’t help but wonder about all of the students who were not accepted this year. While sometimes not being accepted can be due to grades, experience, etc., a sad fact is that many students are not accepted due to faculty shortages within their nursing school.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) stated that the Nursing Faculty Shortage has been primarily contributed to by limited budgets, an aging faculty, and job competition. They also identify that nursing schools “turned away 54,991 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2009 due to an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors, and budget constraints.”

It is no surprise that the nursing shortage is expected to grow to “260,000 by the year 2025,” according to the July/August 2009 issue of Health Affairs. While many people are anxious to get into the healthcare profession, the faculty to train and educate new student nurses is lacking.

For those of you that have been accepted to nursing school this year, I would encourage you to consider getting a Master of Science in Nursing and becoming a faculty member. This goes for all nurses at every stage in their career - your profession needs you.