A lack of faculty has prompted nursing schools to turn away thousands of willing applicants, a new report says.
Nursing schools rejected 26,340 qualified applicants in 2004, according to the American Federation of Teachers, citing data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. A total of 7% of the 10,200 full-time faculty positions at 609 U.S. undergraduate and graduate nursing programs are vacant, AACN data said.
The report comes as nursing homes and hospitals throughout the country are grappling with a shortage of nurses. The shortage last year led to legislation to extend visas to nurses outside the U.S., including the Philippines.
Reductions to higher education budgets have forced nursing programs to shrink or close, the report said. The AFT recommends higher salaries, creating a workplace culture to mentor new faculty, Congressional funding of the Nurse Reinvestment Act, which provides for nursing-school faculty loan cancellation. Clinical agencies should also provide more funding for nursing education, according to the report.
The text of the report is available at http://www.aft.org/healthcare/index.htm.
