Nursing Schools Rejected 41,000 Qualified Applicants Over Lack of Educators

Your right I applied to 4 programs so that really means probably more than 100,000 applications were rejected.

Chatsdale - I just had to address your post because it really brought home the point that we as experienced nurses should be willing to help educate our new nurses.

My kids are on their own. However, nursing is a second career for me (I became a nurse at 34) and my student loans will take a while to whittle down. I can see myself doing part-time education which was a very good suggestion. Thanks.

Seems like there are some alternative answers to the teaching shortage. A nurse with 15 years experience in a speciality, or ten and a certification should be allowed to teach. They have hundreds of hours of real life knowledge that is a better preparation than 4,6,or 8 semesters sitting in a classroom. I have learned more from experience than any book out there. The best prepared nurses I have ever known were the diploma nurses, who spent a great part of their education on the floor, actually doing the job. After all, the great Florence herself did not have a PhD in Nursing, but she soon saw that cleanliness improved outcomes. Experience is more valuable than a string of letters after one's name.
sanctuary, rn, ba, ma.

I guess only a current nursing professor could answer this question. BUT, if it turns out anything like the foreign professors who currently teach science/math courses in our universities now, I can only say they BETTER speak understandable ENGLISH and have the right credentials to teach AMERICAN nursing. Are there universal standards for Nursing????

I'd love to upgrade my RN to a BN, and beyond, but they need to bring down the cost of nursing education. I just can not afford to return to school.

And what constitutes a 'qualified' candidate?? IMHO, not everyone who applies is qualified and not everyone who is accepted is qualified - at least here in Colorado (at the CC's). For example, applicants only need to take a few basic prereq classes before applying to the nursing program - so long as they passed these classes with a 2.0 they are 'accepted' and then put on the waiting list - which is 3 years long. No one is really turned away. However, what I find questionable is the ridiculously high rates of students getting 'dropped' from the program. The program I went to was alot harder and time consuming than many prospective students think. The latest class that graduated...only 54%of the students that started actually finished! Something wrong with this picture??

Bringing in foreign-trained nurses to teach is probably not the answer. There is no standard world-wide nursing education.

As to allowing people with experience to teach versus an advanced degree, I was of the same opinion just a few years ago. I have 14 years of experience (almost all critical care). While I am a very qualified nurse, I did not have the ability to teach. That is something that is learned via coursework in education, management and leadership as well the dreaded theory courses.

I am not sure lowering the standards is the answer to the shortage of education professionals. Do you think the solution to a hospital nursing shortage would be to hire less educated/ less qualified people or do you think the solution is to pay higher wages? I am sure many of you are enjoying the higher wages that are the result of the nursing shortage.

Perhaps increasing the salaries of PhD and MSN prepared faculty would entice more nurses into academia, just as increasing hospital wages increases the number of candidates for nursing positions.

Regardless of the level of instruction, be it ADN or MSN level nursing education, nurse educators should have a minimum educational preparation in principals of nursing education, curriculum design, ect. We expect teachers of 3 grade math to have some kind of educator preparation, don't you think an educator preparing future nurses hold other people's lives in their hands should have some minimum preparation beyond their RN license? Experience is valuable, but there needs to be a way to assess an individual's experience to ensure they have an ability to synthesize and organize that experience into coherent educational content for their students. Basically, an experienced RN still has to be able to teach.

[quote=romie] The worst of it is that most faculty positions pay a lot less than positions in clinical practice. A nurse with a masters degree and NP credentials could easily earn $75-$95K whereas the same masters prepared nurse working as a faculty member would have to take a $10-20K cut in pay.
I'm a FNP/MSN. I am teaching in a BSN program. The numbers you quote are high for this area. New Grads who work full time make more then I do. But I do get the summer/winterbreak/spring break off. Still yes working fulltime as NP I would earn $20K more. I work part time as FNP to keep my ANCC certification. Then the push is for me to get my doctorate. HA HA- I should go into debt so that I can ??? get tenure? Because the new Doctor of Nursing Practice well, I already have prescriptive/independent practice here in New Mexico- so why bother, Oh so I can earn $15K more per year???

Yikes Sailor Nurse.

I got a call out of the blue the other day on my cell phone from a local nursing school asking if I would consider teaching clinicals. Their next question was would I consider getting a PhD? I literally laughed at that one.

Okay...now let me get this right: I take a big pay cut, have to go back to school and then incur more student debt???

I ain't that smart, but I didn't think this was such a hot career move!