Feb 7, 2008 7:25 pm US/Eastern
O'Malley Announces Plan To Ease Nurse Shortage
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (WJZ) ―
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In response to a growing shortage, Governor O'Malley has plans to increase the number of nurses in the state.
Baby boomers are getting older and will need more nursing care at a time when there is a critical nursing shortage.
Suzanne Collins reports the governor has plans to increase the number of nurses.
As the nursing shortage grows in Maryland, many students still want to become nurses. Despite their good grades, they can't get into nursing school.
"We have a tremendous need in our state for people who want to become nurses. It is one of those programs in virtually every college throughout our state, in every university, where we have a lot more people applying than we can accept," said Governor O'Malley.
The state estimates 17,000 more nurses will be needed by 2010, but schools don't have enough nursing professors to teach them.
That means even though applicants have the grades, they apply and are rejected.
"About 2002 we started to see this huge outpouring of interest in nursing, which is wonderful. We have wonderful applicants, all of us, and we are not able to admit the qualified applicants," said Janet Allen, dean of nursing at the University of Maryland.
Last year in Maryland, 1,850 qualified applicants for nursing school weren't accepted.
A recent nursing grad considers herself lucky after seeing friends give up.
"A lot of students I worked alongside with, they didn't make it, and they had to find other careers because after first, second, third try, what are you going to do? You can't keep trying and not getting in and these were smart students," said Sarah Hallett, a nurse.
The difference between what a university professor of nursing makes and what a nurse in the field makes is staggering.
If you want to stay in teaching, you could sacrifice about $30,000 to $40,000 a year in salary.
At St. Joseph's Hospital Thursday, the governor announced that he's put extra funds in his proposed budget to expand nursing schools and faculty.
About $9 in million hospital fees will also target the problem.
There are efforts to recruit retired nurses to teach and at St. Joseph's when they do get new graduates, they have a mentoring program to make sure they succeed and stay in the field.
Universities have expanded web classes to try and use less teachers to teach more students, but in nursing, much of the teaching must be in person with real patients in a clinical setting.
Nurses who are working in the field are also being recruited as adjunct faculty.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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