Nursing school faces faculty shortage
By Megan DeMarco
Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: News
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According to Dean of the School of Nursing, Health and Exercise Science Susan Bakewell-Sachs, the School of Nursing is able to cover both lecture and clinical classes, despite the national crisis.
Although all classes are currently covered, Bakewell-Sachs said the school is focused on succession planning. Like other nursing schools, the College has more senior faculty than junior faculty. A search began in late September to fill two tenure-track positions, which will be available in fall of 2008.
Bakewell-Sachs said one of the biggest challenges facing nursing schools is that the majority of nurses do not have the qualifications to teach. Only 9 percent of nurses have a master's degree and of that 9 percent, only 1 percent of registered nurses (RNs) have a doctorate.
A master's degree in nursing is the minimum degree needed to teach nursing in New Jersey, although faculty members may have their doctorate in nursing or in a discipline other than nursing, such as public health, science, social sciences or education.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the national nursing shortage is expected to intensify as baby boomers age, nurses retire in increasing numbers and more healthcare is needed.
However, AACN reported that over 42,000 qualified applicants were turned away from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2006 due in part to the shortage in faculty. Although nursing enrollments have risen substantially in the past six years, the decade before that had seen falling enrollments. As fewer nurses entered the profession, the average age of RNs, as well as the average age of nursing faculty, has risen.
Bakewell-Sachs said the average age for an RN in New Jersey is 49 and the average age for nursing faculty in New Jersey is 55. Both nationally and in New Jersey, the average age of retirement for nursing faculty is 62.
"We have a supply issue that doesn't match demand," she said.
Fewer than 10 percent of all nurses in the United States are currently under the age of 30.
One limiting factor in bringing nurses in to teach is the increasing demand for nurses with advanced degrees in practice settings such as hospitals, and in other professions such as the pharmaceutical industry and insurance. Bakewell-Sachs said these positions are appealing because of the higher salaries.
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