Why aren't there more nursing programs in your State !!!!

Nursing Students General Students

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Everyone knows that there is a nursing shortage. However, there are not enough programs designed or catered to the people who really wants to go to school for nursing.

To me there should be more evening programs, there should be more part-time BSN programs. There should be more evening programs that caters to mothers/fathers who have to work during the day, but have the time in the evening. Or just about any person period who needs work, but desires to become a nurse.

There are so many people, who wants to become a nurse, but either their schedules dont mesh with the program in their vicinty, or there is a LONG waiting list etc.......

I believe that if this issue can be addressed then there would not be a nursing shortage and there will not be "great" to hire nurses from abroad.

What do you think about this??????

Specializes in Emergency.
There are several ADN programs in my state, but not enough BSN's unless you can travel a good distance everyday to get there. My hometown just recently got an evening program, although it's an LPN-RN bridge, which is good for a lot of people who are working etc...

To be a nursing instructor in an ADN program, do you still have to have a masters/PhD.....or is that just the BSN program? Why do you think there are so few BSN programs? There just aren't enough university campus' across the state or not enough instructors to run BSN program? or something else?

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The way I understand the MSN program is that it is geared toward teaching, and it raises the number of clinical students that can be supervised by that ins. to 10 students, not 5 by a BSN.

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My statements will probably be construed as controversial, but here goes.

There is no nursing shortage. There are over 2.5 million registered nurses in America in addition to the 700,000 licensed practical/vocational nurses. Therefore, there are more than enough currently licensed nurses in this country to solve the so-called 'nursing shortage'.

Here are the problems. A huge portion of these licensed nurses are not working. Many of these licensed nurses abandon the nursing field altogether due to burnout, poor working conditions, and other issues that deserve some sociological research. Additionally, our greatest healthcare needs are at the bedside, but there are too many nurses in management and not enough who are willing to do the 'dirty work' at the bedside. In other words, there are too many 'chiefs' and not enough 'indians'.

There is no shortage of nurses; rather, there's a shortage of nurses who will put up with the crap at the bedside. There's also a shortage of master's-educated nursing instructors. In addition, nursing pay rates will drop if nursing schools admit and graduate a whole flood of new nurses to fill this so-called 'shortage'.

You make it sound like a conspiracy hmm you are saying that there are alot of nurses, but they are unwilling to work. Why would a nurse to be, go thru all that trouble with studying, enduring clinicals. NCLEX. I am sure they would have had an idea of what to expect in their career, dont you think?????

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From what I've seen at my CC it almost makes me suspect there is a bit of a racket going on. When I got in there were 400 applicants for less than 40 spots in the LPN program, not even sure how many for the ADN but supposedly its even harder to get into. I totally agree that there is a shortage of instructors but our school really encourages students to re-take pre-reqs in hopes of increasing their gpa so the school sure isn't losing money. Most of the students that are willing to do this have their classes paid for by financial aid, which imo uses up funds that another student might need and won't get. The sad fact they don't seem to realize is that a large number of these students will never get into the nursing program. Even if all 400 were qualified and raised their gpas to 4.0 we are back to the fact that there aren't enough instructors so they can only take 30-40 per year anyway. Even if the pool of applicants did not increase each year it would take 10 years if everyone were to be accepted.

My point exactly! They make you want to raise your GPA, or tell you have two chances to fail then you are kicked out the program. Then you have to go fishing for another ADN, or BSN program!!! Oops I forgot to mention, that this all depends on if you are fortunate enough to get into the program....

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Not only is there a shortage of instructors ... there is also a shortage of clinical sites. Not every place that has patients is a good teaching environment. Nursing students need particular types of experiences and those experiences are not as readily available as you might think.

For example, most people would like to see an increase in the number of evening and weekend programs. However, many clinical sites offer little for the students to see and do on evenings and weekends. The students who go to clinicals then just sit around and read charts. Assessments, labs, tests, procedures, teaching rounds, etc. all happen during "normal working hours" -- not in the evenings nor on the weekends. I work in a children's hospital. Most of the kids have visitors in the evenings and don't want to be bothered by a student doing unnecessary things. The parents help them get ready for bed. There is not much for the students to do in the evening.

Also, many cities with multiple nursing schools have already expanded to the point that the local clinical facilities can handle.

I think we would be better off focusing any expansion of nursing programs into mid-sized communities with regional community hospitals. Such hospitals are large enough to provide sufficient clinical experiences for the students -- but are not now overstaturated with students falling all over each other. But such communities are exactly the kind of communities that are paying the worst salaries for faculty.

Until the community ("public") feels the pain of the shortage, I doubt they will be willing to spend the money needed to solve it.

You do have a valid point. However there are enough hospital wards that are busy enough, for student to do clinicals at....The point is like you said, the public is not lobbying for a change.

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You make it sound like a conspiracy spiny.gif hmm you are saying that there are alot of nurses, but they are unwilling to work. Why would a nurse to be, go thru all that trouble with studying, enduring clinicals. NCLEX. I am sure they would have had an idea of what to expect in their career, dont you think?????

Many of the nurses I know that dont work do it for a variety of reasons such as they marry well, had kids and dont want to work anymore, decided to retire, have an illness, cant work because they got in trouble, their back cant take anymore, changed profession, or they continue to "work" and go into management or do something away from the bedside. Its not uncommon and its not a conspiracy.

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You are right, I am also aware of such situations. When I used the words conspiracy, I was referring to the last comment by TheCommuter, which states " There's also a shortage of master's-educated nursing instructors. In addition, nursing pay rates will drop if nursing schools admit and graduate a whole flood of new nurses to fill this so-called 'shortage"

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
You do have a valid point. However there are enough hospital wards that are busy enough, for student to do clinicals at....The point is like you said, the public is not lobbying for a change.

In many communities, even fairly large cities, that is not exactly true. It's true for general med/surg units and nursing homes. However, all programs are required to have their students spend a certain number of clinical hours in peds, OB, psych, etc. OR time for students is also at a premium. In some areas, there are not enough slots available at the right time for all the students who want them.

I coordinate the nursing student rotations at my hospital (a children's hospital.) Even though we allow students 24/7 on all of our inpatient units, we do not have enough slots to accommodate all of the schools/students who would like to do clinicals at our hospital. It's also next to impossible for schools to negotiate time on OB and in psych facilities as well.

It's a very real problem in many communities.

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Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.

I"m just wondering--are hospitals indeed teeming with student nurses that they can't figure out what to do with?

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I guess so, waw. I guess you will know best what truly goes on, since that is your arena.

Thanks for sharing.

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I"m just wondering--are hospitals indeed teeming with student nurses that they can't figure out what to do with?

That is a good question. Unfortunately, I do not have the answer to that. May be someone else does.

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I"m just wondering--are hospitals indeed teeming with student nurses that they can't figure out what to do with?

Yeah ... it does happen. During one of our rotations this last semester, somebody screwed up and scheduled our clinical group with a group from another school ... all on the same floor.

There were students everywhere ... it was ridiculous ... everybody was in each other's way, the nurses were overwhelmed and we couldn't get anything done. Our instructor had to scramble to try to find us another floor to finish out the rotation.

:typing

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