Having enough nurses to meet the nation’s projected nursing shortage is a “mathematical improbability” unless nursing schools admit more four year college and university students through federal support for scholarship and training grants in a potential federal bailout of nursing, according to a new article published in the June 12th issue of Health Affairs. 

Researchers from the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing believe in these economic times, it is short-sighted to allow highly sought-after nursing jobs to go vacant while tens of thousands of prospective students are turned away from the nation’s nursing schools.

Fewer nurses who are originally educated with associate’s degrees go on to achieve master’s or Ph.D. degrees, exacerbating the current shortage of nurses who can be faculty and educate the next generation of nurses. The nation is projected to face a shortage of 500,000 nurses by 2025.

The authors also call for new public subsidies for nursing education to be targeted to baccalaureate and graduate education for nurses.  The greatest national needs are for nurses with the qualifications to be teachers, advanced practice nurses such as nurse practitioners, and leaders in complex healthcare organizations.  Currently only one-third of new nurses graduate with a college degree that qualifies them for graduate study. 

“We are proposing increased federal funding under Title VIII and through Medicare to support nursing education so we have more nurses at the hospital bedside,” said Linda H. Aiken, the study’s lead author and professor of nursing and sociology at the University of  Pennsylvania. Administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration, Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act provides funding for nursing workforce development programs. Dr. Aiken’s previous work related patient deaths to fewer numbers of RNs at the bedside following every day types of surgeries.

Dr. Aiken, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, maintains that although employment opportunities are expected to grow much faster for registered nurses than for most other occupations, a major shortage of nurses is projected by 2020.

“Nursing is one of the most popular choices for college students today, but thousands of prospective students are waiting for admission because of capacity limitations resulting from faculty shortages and undergraduate enrollment caps imposed by financially strapped colleges and universities,” she says.    

 “Federal and state funding for nursing education is essential to produce more nursing faculty and to support expanded undergraduate nursing student enrollments,” adds Aiken. “With targeted public investments in expanding nursing school enrollments, we can take advantage of historically high interest in nursing as a career to solve the nation’s nursing shortage well into the future.”

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