Shortage of instructors = waiting?

racing-mom4, BSN, RN · Jul 5, 2008

I myself feel i already paid enough to go to school, I couldnt imagine paying more!

The wait list are not only due to not enough instructors, it is mainly due to not enough places to hold clinicals. Clinical time is hard to come by. In my city alone there are 3 RN/ASN programs and 3 RN/BSN programs..I am guessing there are at least 4 LPN programs that use the hospitals in our city if not 5. So each nursing class has anywhere from 45-60 students--each semester. There are at least 4 semesters that your in clinical at a hospital. So 10 nursing classes x lets just say 45 students per class that is 10x45= 450 students for one semester. Now those 450 are 1st year semester students right, so lets add in the 2nd semester students, now your at 900 students with in the hospital systems. OK so the ASN and the BSN have clinical for 2 and 4 years...so now lets add the 3rd semester students and were up to 1350 students-----see where this is going...the numbers are amazing.

Each clinical group is maybe 10 students, for one clinical instructor. So each nursing class has a main instructor then probably 4 to 5 clinical instructors and those are mainly masters nurses or some BSN nurses working on thier masters.

We have 2 main hospital systems each with 2 to 3 rural branches. so 6 hospitals.

That is alot of students to cram into a hospital system. These students must attend the hospital computer training, Hippa classes, etc etc etc. They all get computer log in IDs etc etc etc.

I dont know the solution, but I do know that there is a problem.

fUsi0n86 · Jul 5, 2008

Thanks for the post. So obviously it isn't just the problem of not having sufficient amount of instructors.

racing-mom4, BSN, RN · Jul 5, 2008

Thanks for the post. So obviously it isn't just the problem of not having sufficient amount of instructors.

In my opinion that is just part of the problem. the lack of instructors and the lack of hospital space to hold clinicals. Trust me, if the schools could get in 100 students per class, they would. They want our tuition money as badly as we are willing to shell it out.

I dont know the statistics and I hope someone that does will post, but I would love to know the number of graduating nurses per year compared to the number even 10 years ago.

I know back as recent as 1990 there was not the wait list that there are today. I think as recent as even 10 years ago, if you wanted to be a nurse, you applied, took a few classes and got in. Not any more...

Simpleplan · Jul 5, 2008

From what I understand the waiting lists to enter nursing programs are so long because there aren't enough of nursing instructors. It is because the salary between the nursing instructors and actual practicing nurses are not comparable enough and it's financially not worth it to be teaching. Now, I don't know how many nursing students are in one particular class, but wouldn't this problem be solved by simply chipping in a few more thousand dollars using your school loan? If there are 30 students in a class and each paid $5,000 more in addition to the say... $30,000 or whatever the school is charging... that's $150,000, enough to pay for an instructor or even two. I'd personally be willing to pay a little extra to get in earlier rather than having to wait 2-3 years. Share your views please.

I will be over 60 before my student loans are paid off. I doubt they'll even let me take out anymore. Just get your grades up. You will get it.

fUsi0n86 · Jul 5, 2008

I will be over 60 before my student loans are paid off. I doubt they'll even let me take out anymore. Just get your grades up. You will get it.

I am going the RT route but there are waiting lists for us just like pre-RN's have it My school currently offers 3 spots to the program every year, that's so ridiculous. I'll apply but I'm prepared to apply to 10 more schools elsewhere.

MikeyJ, RN · Jul 5, 2008

My school bases their admissions on how many clinical spots they can get at the local hospitals.

NurseWannabe1129 · Jul 5, 2008

I recall hearing from someone that Jersey law mandates that there is a 10:1 ratio students to professors. And the professors must have a BSN or above. Don't know if it's like that in other states. New Jersey is known for being a little backwards

John20 · Jul 5, 2008

I will be over 60 before my student loans are paid off. I doubt they'll even let me take out anymore. Just get your grades up. You will get it.

Wow, >$60,000? My entire 2 year program at a community college costs just over $4,000. You would be better off just getting an RN from a community college and then going to a RN to BSN program (with much of it paid for by the hospital) afterwarrds. You wouldn't have any debt to pay off.

vashtee, RN · Jul 5, 2008

Where I live, not enough instructors, not enough clinical spots, and not enough classroom space all contribute to the wait list.

Oh, and considering the pay rate for new nurses, I think it would be a horrible idea to raise the tuition rates. Nurses aren't wealthy, you know.

RhodyGirl, RN · Jul 5, 2008

My school has 2 admission periods per year, and they are both based on the amount of classroom/clinical space....which is very limited.

I personally would prefer to keep school loan debt to a minimum.

As long as you keep your grades high you shouldn't have too much of a problem entering a program, though it may take longer than you hope for.

llg, PhD, RN · Jul 5, 2008

Here's another factor in the picture:

Few students and faculty members want to be in clinical in the evening, on weekends, and over the traditional "school holidays." I am the liaison for my hospital and the 10 nursing programs that use it for clinical rotations and I do the scheduling for those clinicals. Looking at the master calendar reveals a definite pattern.

All the schools want their clinicals scheduled on the same days (Tuesdays through Fridays ... with a couple of Saturday clinicals) and the same weeks of the year. There are other days and other weeks when we have no requests for students. Most glaring ... No one does clinicals between the 2nd week of December through the 3rd week of January. If any school wanted more clinical time, they could have it -- IF they could convince their students to do it over that holiday period. But of course, they would have to pay their faculty an arm and a leg to give up their holiday breaks.

Similarly, there is another glaring break in the student activity at the end of April through May -- in between the spring and summer semesters.

Not many schools have the flexibililty to schedule their classes at those time ... so, those possibilities go unutilized.