Nursing Schools declined 56,000 qualified applicants in 2017

ruby_jane, BSN, RN · May 1, 2018

Interesting. I truly question the statement that by 2022 we'll need a million new nurses.

In North Texas there is absolutely not a shortage of nurses; nor is there a shortage of nursing schools. What there is a shortage of is experienced nurses willing to work in hospital settings, and hospitals who are willing to invest the time that it takes to fully train and onboard a nurse who will become an experienced nurse willing to work in a hospital setting. Just my two cents.

JKL33 · May 1, 2018

Aside from shortages in local/regional pockets, there is only a shortage of nurses willing to work FT in the current environment.

And nursing schools certainly have their own politics that limit their pools of instructors.

Hoosier_RN, MSN · May 1, 2018

I used to teach at a community college, made less than half of what I made at the bedside, and no benefits. As a single mom, it didn't take me long to get back to the bedside. Most areas are flooded with new grads, who quickly leave the bedside to become a NP, which is oversaturating the market as well, driving the pay down. Clinical sites for nursing programs in my area are drying up, as too many students are assigned to too few instructors, which then dumps the students on the nursing staff-out of necessity, leaving the hospital in position of liability if something goes wrong-I got this info from a CNO at a nearby hospital. I think that nursing schools need to take a step back and evaluate the true need for the future

guest769224 · May 1, 2018

GOOD. By turning away subpar applicants, we protect our profession. This forces hospitals to be more accommodating to existing nurses and to attract future nurses. And we all know how generous hospitals are to their nurses... (NOT). But seriously, I am 100% in favor of these schools turning down applicants.

Don't change a single thing. In fact, they should increase admission requirements and standards.

ButterflyRN90, ASN, RN · May 2, 2018

THIS

Shoot, even my hospital only hires

SummitRN, BSN, RN · May 6, 2018

"Waaaah RNs don't want to work in brutal work environments with crappy workloads and bad ratios for crap pay" -Most hospitals

"Waaaah MSN/DNPs don't want to teach for pathetic pay and no benefits while we charge 1 student the same amount of $ to take a class that we pay the adjunct to teach a class of 20." -All Universities

caliotter3 · May 6, 2018

Aside from shortages in local/regional pockets, there is only a shortage of nurses willing to work FT in the current environment.
And nursing schools certainly have their own politics that limit their pools of instructors.

I attended a nursing program where serious ramifications of nursing department politics was openly discussed by even the students. Made for a very tense and negative experience.

glowbug, BSN, RN · May 8, 2018

I've read several articles recently referring to a nursing shortage, but I have friends who graduated two years ago, who still have not found a job. I think more applicants should be turned away. There are thousands of new grads a year where I reside, and usually less than hundreds of new grad positions posted.

adventure_rn, MSN, NP · May 8, 2018

One of the trends I've seen at a handful of my local universities is increasing the minimum educational requirements for faculty.

When I attended my BSN program (ranked at the time as one of the top 10 nursing programs in the country by US News and World Report), the majority of my instructors had MSNs without a doctoral degree. Due to a recent change in senior leadership, all current faculty are now required to start working toward a PhD or they will be let go.

Several of these instructors have decades of experience in nurse education. Many of them are in their 40s to 50s, and are being told that they have to work on a PhD while simultaneously working as full-time faculty in order to keep their jobs. Despite the massive burden, they aren't going to receive any sort of pay increase for having the PhD.

I'm sure that many of these amazing instructors will decide to quit and move on to other fields, bedside or otherwise. I'm guessing that these programs will have a huge issue with hiring and retaining 'qualified,' enthusiastic, experienced faculty. So, so sad!

llg, PhD, RN · May 8, 2018

I'm also skeptical about the numbers who are supposedly "turned away." I suspect that some of those people applied to multiple schools and got accepted somewhere else. If all the researchers are doing is asking schools the number they rejected, 1 individual person could be counted 3 or 4 times.

SummitRN, BSN, RN · May 8, 2018

One of the trends I've seen at a handful of my local universities is increasing the minimum educational requirements for faculty.
When I attended my BSN program (ranked at the time as one of the top 10 nursing programs in the country by US News and World Report), the majority of my instructors had MSNs without a doctoral degree. Due to a recent change in senior leadership, all current faculty are now required to start working toward a PhD or they will be let go.
Several of these instructors have decades of experience in nurse education. Many of them are in their 40s to 50s, and are being told that they have to work on a PhD while simultaneously working as full-time faculty in order to keep their jobs. Despite the massive burden, they aren't going to receive any sort of pay increase for having the PhD.
I'm sure that many of these amazing instructors will decide to quit and move on to other fields, bedside or otherwise. I'm guessing that these programs will have a huge issue with hiring and retaining 'qualified,' enthusiastic, experienced faculty. So, so sad!

Great way to get people who are on the tenure track off of it and replace them with cheap adjuncts