Nursing schools lack faculty

Nevada's medical facilities still feel the pinch from the ongoing nursing shortage, but the problem goes beyond just nurses working in the field.

There's a need in the classrooms as well because fewer nurse professionals are available to train nurses in Nevada.

"The fact that we still don't have enough faculty, it limits our ability to address the nursing shortage,'' said Lori Candela, graduate nurse track educator at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who recently secured a federal grant to address the state's nurse educator shortage. "Then, combine that with the fact that one-third or more of all nursing faculty, nationally, are eligible to retire in the next five years. Looking forward, the issue is more grim.''

To teach nurses, a professor must have a degree higher than the student. For example, someone teaching nurses at the baccalaureate level would need a master's degree.

Educators training nurses at the master's degree level would need at least a doctorate, said Sarah Keating, a visiting professor for UNR's Orvis School of Nursing, which has a partnership with UNLV on the grant.

Awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, the $710,000 grant is for a three-year period and will help fund an accelerated nursing doctoral program through master's degree nursing programs at UNLV and the University of Nevada, Reno.

UNLV offers the only nursing Ph.D program in Nevada.

Students pursuing their master's degrees in nursing at UNLV or UNR will be allowed to take at least four Ph.D-level courses that will eventually count when they enroll in UNLV's doctoral program.

Candela said that shaves nine months to a year off the time needed to complete UNLV's doctoral program.

Typically, someone who works full-time, "and really hard," at pursuing their Ph.D in nursing can do it in three to 3 1/2 years, she said.

"This is pretty significant because we can speed these individuals into the classrooms as educators,'' Candela said.

Though the grant is intended for Nevada's nursing schools, Keating said the accelerated program is designed to serve as a model for institutions nationally, especially in areas of the country experiencing population growth.

Keating said states such as California, Colorado and Wyoming are experiencing nurse educator shortages as well. Because schools are so desperate for nurse educators, potential nurse faculty members could be attracted by schools in those states.

The hope is nursing schools in other states could use the model and generate their own nurse educators.

"We're looking at this from a regional point of view,'' Keating said.

In the meantime some nursing schools in Nevada are turning qualified students away because they don't have the staffing to teach them.

That is the case with the College of Southern Nevada, which lacks full-time nurse educators, said Hyla Winters, dean of the school of health sciences.

Overall, enrollment at the college has been steady the past year, with approximately 564 students enrolled, officials said. However, for this fall's semester, which started Aug. 27, 266 qualified students applied for full-time status. Only 120 were accepted.

Ninety-seven students applied for part-time status. Only 31 were accepted.

Winters said the school started the fall semester Monday down just one full-time nursing faculty position. It will need more full-time faculty for the spring semester, however, because positions have been filled by instructors working part time.

The University of Southern Nevada, formerly the Nevada College of Pharmacy, offers a bachelor of science in nursing. The program has experienced a 240 percent increase in enrollment since last year, said spokesman Jason Roth. Last year, 34 students were enrolled in the program. This fall, 82 were enrolled.

Despite high enrollment, Roth said, the school is in need of nurse educators. "We understand that shortage, and we continue to recruit. This will be a never ending thing for us.''

Another component of UNLV and UNR's grant is to address the shortage of minority nurse faculty.

Candela said minorities make up more than 30 percent of the general population and 20 percent of nursing students, yet only 8 percent of the nation's nursing faculty. In Nevada, minority nurse faculty is in the single digits, she said.

"When you look around our community and how we've grown ethnically, our student and nurse population doesn't mirror that. That's very concerning to me.''