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By Amanda Sounart, associate editor 

The nursing shortage that continues to plague health care facilities across the U.S. may soon be alleviated, at least in California. A new study out of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) found a large increase in nursing student enrollments over the last few years that, if it continues, will effectively end the state’s shortage in 10 to 15 years.

One major concern among health care leaders, however, is that it may be difficult to keep the funds for the nursing instructors from drying up.

“We had a big decline in the number of new nursing students from the 80s to mid 90s,” said Joanne Spetz, associate director of the Center for California Health Workforce Studies at UCSF, and lead researcher of the study. “The number of people applying to programs has risen quite a bit since then. Part of the reason is the increase in salaries for nurses. Public relations campaigns got the word out on the nursing shortage and also informed potential students that nursing is a very exciting and lucrative career.”

The study found that the number of nursing school graduates California has increased by 73 percent over a five-year period. While more students are applying to become nurses, many states are finding it hard to entice qualified faculty to teach, leaving fewer positions to handle the influx of students. Many nurses want to stay in the field because they enjoy the excitement and satisfaction of being a nurse while others are not willing to take the pay cut that often accompanies an academic position.

In order to combat these pitfalls, California schools have found innovative ways to attracted quality staff members, therefore allowing for more students to enroll each year.

“I think every college director has been creative,” said Spetz. “Some schools have been actively recruiting retired nurses or former military nurses. This allows them to work part time so they aren’t 100 percent dependent on retirement income. They’ve also been targeting bedside nurses who don’t want to continue in that line of work but have the skills and experience needed to teach.”

Other schools have been partnering with hospitals to attract part-time instructors who spend the remainder of their week practicing their nursing specialty. In these partnershp agreements, the hospitals may offer these part-time nurses the benefits of a full-time employee. The nurses can then experience both the academic and clinical aspects of nursing without sacrificing their health insurance and other benefits.

Student nurses also benefit from these partnerships by getting the opportunity to learn from an instructor who is still active in the field.

“People are beginning to realize that going into nursing school doesn’t mean you have to be a bedside nurse,” added Spetz. “A tremendous number of pathways are available.”

The State of California has also implemented a computerized faculty resource center, which provides nurses who are interested in becoming an instructor with information on teaching and the variety of ways they can contribute to the academic aspect of nursing. The resource center also allows potential instructors to distribute their résumés to institutions looking for more instructors. As a centralized resource, the system is helpful in identifying faculty, though it will take some time to evaluate the center’s effectiveness.

Private schools have more room to offer larger salaries, while private schools are often left at the mercy of donations and public funding.

“Over the past five years or so, the growth has come from various kinds of contributions,” said Spetz. “Schools have received grants from the state and federal government and Governor Schwarzenegger has implemented the California Nurse Education Initiative. Right now, we don’t know how much of the growth has come from grants. In the future, there’s a concern that if a lot of funding comes from this ‘soft money,’ it could dry up. If the governor doesn’t renew his initiative or if the grants don’t come in, there will be no money to bring in more instructors, and no room for new students. If that money disappears, then we don’t know what that will mean for the shortage.”

With the encouraging news of increased enrollments in nursing schools throughout the state, it may be tempting for lawmakers to allocate funding to other programs; however, this could severely impede the progress made against the state’s nursing shortage. In order for the increased enrollment to continue and the shortage to be corrected, lawmakers have to ensure long-term funding to help fill any gaps made when temporary grants run dry.

“If the shortage will be alleviated in a few years, that means we should stay the course and continue with what we are doing,” added Spetz.

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