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

Yes and this will continue until we value advanced education. I actually received a phone call from a local school of nursing that asked me (sight unseen I migh add), to teach for them.

However, at 48 with student loans to repay, I can't take that kind of pay cut.

Pay me more and I'll teach. I do teach CPR, ACLS, ENPC and do some occasional trauma lectures too. However, this is strictly as a volunteer.

Running a nursing department is extremely expensive for a college or university. Besides the equipment, there are the large number of faculty required to maintain the low student teacher ratios that are mandated for nursing education. 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.

One comparision comes to mind to illustrate this dire situation. Music programs in universities and colleges are also very expensive due to the large number of expensive instruments needing purchasing and the large number of faculty required. A minimum of one teacher per orchestral instrument is required on staff, not to mention all the ear training and music theory faculty. There is no shortage of faculty in the music field because being a professor at a school of music is highly coveted and pays well according to the industry standard. A music professor making $45-50K is a very happy musician because there are essentially no other full time steady music jobs.

I looked up a nursing instructor on salary.com and there were salaries that topped $100K.

To me, on one side it would be nice if other students could get into nursing school. I moved from an area were if you didn't have a 3.7, you could forget it. Does that mean someone that had a 3.0 or higher would be unqualified? Of course not!

However, I also believe if the market was saturated with nurses...everyone would suffer a cut in pay.

What about bringing in foreigners to teach? I am just thinking out loud.

I've heard about the low salaries for nursing professors, when compared to working in the field, so to speak, but I've also been told by a few nurses who inquired about teaching jobs that some universities only want adjunct professors to fill in the gap. While the USA Today article mentions people who got teaching jobs with benefits, I think some schools may only want adjunct professors so that they don't have to pay the expense of health and retirement benefits.

This news doesn't surprise me. There's a severe lack of master's-educated instructors available to teach all of the nursing programs.

Why would a master's-educated nurse accept a job as a professor at a local college or regional university for $60,000 yearly when (s)he can potentially earn $80,000 to $100,000+ per year as a DON, ADON, nurse manager, or chief nursing officer of a large healthcare network?

just a thought
i know that there is not any time when you can't use more money but when your kids are on their own, your loans are paid off, qualifiy yourself to bring the next generation of nurses to fruitation

The problem isn't with nurses wanting a good income! That smacks of martyrdom, doesn't it? If the universities really wanted a solid core of professors, they would pay for them. The use of "adjunct" professors makes sense to me. After all, universities are a business too. If they can get away with cutting costs they will - just like any other business would. Also - requiring a high GPA makes sense too - as we want people who are academically strong to teach the academic stuff.

-S

41,000 applicants... Hmm... I wonder if anyone takes into account that many people now apply to more than one school in hopes of a better chance of getting in. It may just be in my area, but a lot of people I know applied to at least 3 different programs!