Less Applicants for Nursing Programs?

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I was at a Magnet meeting today, and one of the participants questioned why there is a nursing shortage. One of our nursing administrators stated that there are less instructors because the salaries are not competitive (a basically known fact), and also, that there are statistics proving that there are less students applying for nursing programs. I am asking those that may have these statistics if this is true.

I know that I am speaking from a limited point of view; I can only speak for the schools within my area (especially community colleges); but I am hearing stories (and have witnessed) of RN programs having limited seats with over 300 applicants. Many are on waiting lists from anywhere from 2 years or more anticipating a seat. I am not seeing this. I have no statistics before me, but am having a hard time believing this, but again, this is from my own small circle of the world.

Does anyone have these stats, or have heard of them in their respective programs? I am looking for enlightenment. I am aware that there may have been a decrease of applicants in the beginning of the AIDS scare, but not currently.

Thanks, everyone!

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To me, that doesn't hold water with the arguement they are trying to make.

If you have a program that has 50 slots and 50 applicants, do you really need a larger teaching staff if you have 300 applicants and still only 50 slots...of course you don't.

I personally, don't think that all nursing instructors are underpaid. The instructors at my school all have MSN's...and they all worked only 1 day a week this entire summer...we were given a list of who was working on what day. That's ALOT of time off.

I also know that the Department Head makes over $104,000 per year....that's not too bad for a M-F, 8:30 to 4:00 job and working only partially in the summer with every holiday off.

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I couldn't find anything to back up those kind of statistics in the quick search I did on yahoo and it certainly isn't the trend in my area. The community colleges around here have waitlists that range from 2 to 5 years. My school received over 900 applicants for the last term, when they were able to admit about 200 students (100 for spring start, 100 for summer start).

I'll be interested to see what everyone else has to say (I'm sure someone will find some stats, one way or the other).

RNin'08

~my reality check bounced~

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

So many times I hear the reason behind the nursing shortage is they can't get nurses to teach because of pay. I don't believe that. What I do believe is there is a limited amount of clinical space available to nursing students. In any given city, there are several nursing programs that need space in clinicals for their students. That's where I think the bottleneck is.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I can believe that there are not enough clinical instructors because of the salaries as well as the risk the clinical instructor is taking on her license based on what a student does, but I am really having a hard time believing that there are less applicants, but again, I am not sure. I just remember seeing many students being turned away because of lower GPAs, since there are limited seats.

Last year, I graduated from an LPN program that had a problem with getting space for us to do clinicals, in fact, the first 6 weeks, we were just practicing in the skills lab and it was somehow counted towards our clinical hours.

I am so interested to see these statistics that were spoken of today. From what I see, there is a shortage of nurses at the bedside, and it seems to come from the advances that nurses are now getting by continuing their education to BSN and Master Degree programs in addition to the conditions that nurses work under. Many are leaving the profession, and I assume that they keep their licenses active.

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Hello all,

I believe there is a nursing shortage because of not enough clinical space at hospitals for students. I am a student and have had to do my first med-surge rotation at a nursing home/rehab facility rather than a hospital. I was not happy about it. It was like repeating fundamentals all over again.

I also belive there is a nursing shortage because nurses are leaving the bedside due to stressful working situations as well as unsafe ones. I work as an aide at a hopsital and I have seen quite a few nurses leaving the floor for the OR and outpatient positions. A lot of the nurses only work per diem because of stress. It is really discouraging as a student to see this and know the kind of stress I will be walking into come May 2008. The floor I work on has good comraderie and a great 2nd shift charge nurse and still the nurses are leaving. I can only imagine the turnover on the so called "toxic" units.

I feel the real reason there is a shortage is because the hospital big wigs won't pay for adequate staffing. I wonder how they can go home and sleep at night in their mansions and know patients are at risk because of staffing issues. You know these people are pulling in six figure salaries. It is disgusting. We need to unite and start a revolution or something to change this.:angryfire

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I am going to ask these nurses for the statistics or articles that stated that there are less students applying because their statement is that one of the reasons for the nursing shortages is because there are less applicants. I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around this. I definitely agree with what has been posted in this thread thus far. I am just looking at it from my personal world, not throughout this country, and I don't want to limit my thinking to just my own personal experiences. If they can give me answers, I plan to share them here; of course!

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Acttually both points of view are correct.

Limited instructors and limited clinical sites bottleneck the possible number of students that can be trained.

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Yeah the problem is both that the instructors are underpaid and there is a lack of clinical sites.

The national average at this point, last I heard, was an average wait of 2-3 years to get into a program.

I personally, don't think that all nursing instructors are underpaid.....

That's funny, but honestly you don't know much about it. What you know is what you have seen in your experiences in your program. If you program is anything like mine, those instructors are juggling other classes or doing other work for the program when not working directly with you.

In any case, regardless...the day you graduate you will be making more than your instructors, unless they have something else on the side. Keep that in perspective...that the people qualified to train you to be a nurse will be making less than you, a green newbie with still so very much to learn.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

I don't have a citation handy ... but I pay attention to these issues as part of my job. The problem isn't that there aren't enough people applying to nursing schools, it's that:

1. There aren't enough qualified instructors (due to poor pay and poor working conditions).

2. There aren't enough clinical sites for student rotations -- particularly in specialty areas.

3. Many people entering the profession have no intention of working at the bedside for very long.

4. Many nurses who would like to work at the bedside leave because of poor working conditions.

And whoever thinks their instructors are highly paid and have easy jobs probably doesn't know what they are talking about. Of course there are some exceptions, but most nursing faculty are over-stressed and underpaid. That's why there is such a faculty shortage! If it were a great job, there would be people waiting in line for the chance to do it.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept.

I ended up with about a 3.35 GPA in my nursing classes, passed boards on the first try with only 75 questions and it took me two years to be accepted into a BSN program (and that was after all of the prereqs were completed). I ended up taking random classes for two years to stay a full time student before getting into nursing school. I think these figures sound pretty good - and I was turned down for four semesters to get into the program. At my school they always had at least double the applicants than they had spots for the students. I don't know if its clinical sites or teachers, but there is a definite shortage in the education community.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I definitely believe it is mostly what people have mentioned in this tread...not enough instructors because the salaries are not competitive, nurses with higher education are leaving the bedside, etc....

Now, what I am curious about (and this is the reason why I started this thread) is if this is true that another reason why there is a shortage of nurses is because there are less applicants. I was told in this meeting that there are statistics proving that there are less applicants to the nursing programs than before. I can't wrap my brain around this statement based on what I witnessed entering and graduating from my own college, friends that have tried to become or are also nurses or other casual resources, such as allnurses. Has anyone heard of this, or have access to such stats?

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