Online College Club

A new nursing program could help more qualified applicants gain acceptance into nursing schools. While many students have been enrolling in campus and online degree programs in nursing as a means of launching registered nurse careers, nursing schools could produce more. There’s a nurse educator shortage, some say, which in turn affects the country’s supply of registered nurses.

A shortage of nurse educators hasn’t been addressed nearly as much as a nursing shortage, according to what Mountain State University Orlando Executive Director Randy White recently told the Orlando Business Journal. Mountain State University, in response to the shortage, has added a new masters degree in administration and education with classes beginning October 9. Mountain State University, which offers online degree programs as well, is located in Florida, where qualified nursing school applicants have been turned away by public universities leaving prospective students in a lurch over their nurses school, according to an October 2009 article in the Tallahassee Democrat.

Florida isn’t alone. A National League of Nursing and Carnegie Foundation Preparation for the Professions Program report from 2006 suggested that nearly 1,400 budgeted, full-time nursing faculty positions throughout the country were unfilled. The vacancy rate was expected to grow as aging baby boomers working in nursing faculty positions retire, according to the report. The nursing turnover itself is already a major problem in states such as Florida, where even a gain of more than 27,000 registered nurses over the past two years was diminished so much by workforce losses that the state experienced a net gain of only about 11,000 registered nurses, according to a recent study from the Florida Center for Nursing.

At least part of the concern has to do with the needs of aging baby boomers. Nursing schools, the American Association for Colleges of Nursing notes, must produce about 90 percent more graduates in order to meet their anticipated demands. Additional growth in nursing employment into 2018 is expected as a result of technological advances in patient care and an increase in preventative care, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Students interested in becoming nurse educators might find that online degree and certificate programs allow them to continue their education without interrupting their current employment. Western Governors University offers an online degree program known as an “RN to MSN,” through which registered nurses with associate degrees or diplomas in nursing can earn an online degree in nursing education at the masters level. Advanced online degree and certificate programs from Walden University and Capella University, on the other hand, are for registered nurses who already hold masters degrees, according to their websites. This allows students to leverage their time already spent on single mothers nursing school for more gain.

Where Walden University’s online nursing education program is essentially masters level certificate, Capella University’s program is a doctoral level online degree in education with a nursing education specialization. According to the Capella University website, this nursing program is designed to prepare nurses also to advance nursing field through doctoral research. Students seeking scholarships, fellowships and other forms of financial aid might find them as readily available from online colleges and universities as they are from “bricks and mortar” institutions.

Arizona State University doctoral degree candidate Carolyn Hickman, on the other hand, in August was named among several nationwide students to receive an $18,000 Future Minority Nurse Faculty Scholarship that’s paid for by the Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing Future and administered by the American Association for Colleges for Nursing, an association announcement noted. Nurse educators in 2005-2006 earned an average $55,499 salary along with $5,453 in additional wages, according to the National League for Nursing-Carnegie Foundation survey. The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bureau of Clinician Recruitment and Service website shows that this agency provides another financial incentive: The ability to receive as much as $20,000 a year toward the principal and interest on outstanding educational loans. As part of the Faculty Loan Repayment Program, degree-trained health professionals from disadvantaged backgrounds work as nurse educators at accredited health professions colleges or universities for a minimum of two years, receiving the principal and interest payments for each year that they serve in that capacity, the website shows.

With women making up the overwhelming majority of nurse educators at the time of the National League for Nursing-Carnegie Foundation study, minorities that account for only 16 percent have, with men, been seen as untapped resources of talent for their nursing master degree. By advancing their education with the applicable online course programs and becoming nurse educators, these individuals and others have opportunities to enter careers where they can shepherd leagues of registered nurses into high-demand careers. In doing so, they’d be helping to fulfill the anticipated health care needs of many.

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