The UConn School of Nursing accepts 80 new students each year.

Nursing School Deals With Shortages

By: Christine Needham

Posted: 1/19/07

Nursing is an integral part of the health care system, but it is an area that is struggling because there are not enough people to fulfill the positions needed. Although there has been an increase in nursing graduates over the past several years, there is still a severe shortage of nurses nationwide.

A contributing factor to this shortage is a lack of instructors, which causes nursing schools to be forced to turn away many applicants, recently reported the Hartford Courant. According to Professor E. Carol Polifroni, interim dean of the School of Nursing, UConn receives 800 applications, yet accepts only 80 students.

"During clinicals, our instructor couldn't always be there for all of us when we needed it," said April Welch, a 6th-semester nursing major. "The schools never have enough instructors so they have to make groups of eight or nine students."

In addition, although a student may be accepted into a program, that does not necessarily ensure he or she will make it through. According to Polifroni, there is a 10 percent attrition rate for student nurses.

"Nursing is a difficult profession; the science foundation is rigorous," Polifroni said. "The work itself as a nurse is emotionally tough and it is physically demanding."

UConn provides help for students by giving them a faculty advisor from the time they are admitted to assist them through their time at the university. UConn also has a program to increase graduation rates for non-nursing majors called the MbEIN program. According to Polifroni, 32 students per year graduate from this program, which takes about 11 months to complete. Polifroni said there are plans to extend this program to the Stamford and Waterbury campuses, which will increase graduation numbers as well.

Relief for some colleges becomes available when they become sponsored by a hospital. Hospitals provide schools some of the money they need, which allows them to accept more applicants, reported the Courant. Stamford, Norwalk and Greenwich Hospitals gave $75,000 to Norwalk Community College (NCC) last year. This allowed the hiring of three new instructors, allowing NCC to increase the accepted applicants from 60 to 140 students, according to the Courant.

The nursing shortage is only expected to grow in the future. According to the Courant, this is due mainly to the fact that many veteran nurses are retiring. There are not enough nursing graduates to keep up with the amount that are retiring or leaving the practice. The strain of not having enough nurses is seen throughout the health care field. Nurses work long hours and often times there are not enough nurses to cover shifts, which can affect patient care and lead to increasing stress for the nurses. Nursing is a field in which there is a lot of potential to advance. According to Polifroni, UConn has a program to obtain graduate and doctoral degrees that is growing. Between the undergraduate and the MbEIN programs 150 to 200 new nurses finish the program each year.

"I chose to be a nursing major because there is job security," Welch said. "Also, it's great when you want a family because you can change your hours to be with your kids."