http://scrubsmag.com/the-future-of-nursing-nurse-educators/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:17:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://scrubsmag.com/the-future-of-nursing-nurse-educators/#comment-541 Lakisha Jones Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:26:56 +0000 http://scrubsmag.com/?p=4654#comment-541 The shortage of nursing- an issue the profession has been dealing with for years. This issue of nursing schools lacking professional support I do agree is one of the major contributors to the problem. Look at University of Florida for example: a well-esteemed nursing program that turns down nearly 75% of their applicants because they have to limit the size of their nursing class. One of the factors is the number of instructors available to teach is limited, but also a huge factor that sometimes people forget is the resources available in the area that the school must rely on for educational purposes- hospitals. Nursing students have clinical rotations in hospital settings that have to be large enough to house the students. Funding can also be an issue for many nursing schools like any college program. Nursing school is intense, hands-on, and the importance of supplies and equipment to "practice on" also becomes a financial issue. Grace's idea to offer teaching positions to those without an advanced degree but with loads of experience would be a great idea, most especially in the clinical setting. If schools could implement a standard of quality that all instructors had to abide by, I think many experienced nurses could provide invaluable experience that a less experienced, advanced degree nurse could not. If the numbers truly reflect that nursing school admission numbers are capped due to limited instructors, then any way to get influence those to teach should be welcome. But we cannot forget to look at other compounding reasons listed earlier as to why nursing schools simply can't handle larger numbers. The shortage of nursing- an issue the profession has been dealing with for years. This issue of nursing schools lacking professional support I do agree is one of the major contributors to the problem. Look at University of Florida for example: a well-esteemed nursing program that turns down nearly 75% of their applicants because they have to limit the size of their nursing class. One of the factors is the number of instructors available to teach is limited, but also a huge factor that sometimes people forget is the resources available in the area that the school must rely on for educational purposes- hospitals. Nursing students have clinical rotations in hospital settings that have to be large enough to house the students. Funding can also be an issue for many nursing schools like any college program. Nursing school is intense, hands-on, and the importance of supplies and equipment to “practice on” also becomes a financial issue. Grace’s idea to offer teaching positions to those without an advanced degree but with loads of experience would be a great idea, most especially in the clinical setting. If schools could implement a standard of quality that all instructors had to abide by, I think many experienced nurses could provide invaluable experience that a less experienced, advanced degree nurse could not. If the numbers truly reflect that nursing school admission numbers are capped due to limited instructors, then any way to get influence those to teach should be welcome. But we cannot forget to look at other compounding reasons listed earlier as to why nursing schools simply can’t handle larger numbers.

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