Development - Meeting the Needs of Nursing
Nursing Shortage: The growing nursing shortage will affect all of us as we need access to quality health care. It is anticipated that we will need a million more nurses by 2020.
In Utah, we have a great opportunity to address this shortage and fulfill an economic growth opportunity as well. Many well-qualified young men and women apply to nursing programs throughout the state, but they are unable to get in because the programs are full. Our goal is to increase the enrollment capacity of all the nursing programs in the state by preparing more faculty.
Nursing Faculty Shortage: The most critical factor contributing to the nursing shortage in Utah and across the country is the limited number of masters and doctoral prepared nurses to serve as faculty. We offer the only doctorate degree program in Utah.
In the 9 nursing programs in Utah, we have approximately 205 faculty and need an additional 30 faculty. The average age of nursing faculty is 50 and over 1/3 plan to retire in the next 5 years. This demographic data highlights the urgent need to prepare more nursing faculty in order to expand the nursing programs throughout the state.
Priorities: The top priorities for our College of Nursing are: (1) the preparation of more baccalaureate nurses and (2) the education of more masters and doctorally-prepared nurses for specialty, leadership and faculty positions in the state. The nursing shortage is linked to the critical shortage of nursing faculty. In order to expand our programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level, we need to prepare and recruit more faculty.
Our challenge in nursing education is to provide educational opportunities and financial support to the many bright and capable men and women who want to become nurses and nurse educators. Decreases in state funding have limited our ability to expand enrollments, and the slow economy has decreased the funds available for scholarship support.
Your participation and support are very important! When you give to the College, you are actively involved in finding solutions to the nursing shortage.
