Nursing schools in Pennsylvania are filled with students and turning record numbers of qualified applicants away, citing a lack of faculty and clinical training sites.
Nurses with advanced degrees can make more money in hospitals and clinical settings than they can as teachers. There are 767 vacancies on the faculties of nursing schools around the nation, said Robert Rosseter, associate executive director of the Washington-based American Association of Colleges of Nursing. That's an average of two vacancies per school.
The faculty shortage perpetuates the shortage of nurses, which educators say poses a particular problem in the Pittsburgh region, because it is second only to the Miami region in elderly population. As people age, they get sicker and require more medical care, nursing school deans say.
"We are all going to get sick sometime in our life," said Carol Caliendo, a nurse who is dean of the School of Professional Studies at Carlow University. "When I open my eyes in a hospital bed, I want a qualified nurse taking care of me."
Nationwide, 9,100 nursing jobs were unfilled in 2005, and that is expected to rise to 36,600 by 2010, according to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.
"Schools are getting more competitive each year," said Brianne Morris, 21, of Hopewell, a senior nursing student at Robert Morris University, who plans to become a pediatric nurse practitioner at a local hospital after she graduates.
"And that's not just our school. That's every school," she said. "You really have to keep your grades up in high school and know that this is something you want to do."
Nationwide, the number of qualified applicants turned away from entry-level bachelor's degree nursing programs soared from 3,600 in 2002 to 38,415 last year, according to the association. In Pennsylvania, 26 schools reported turning away 48 qualified applicants in 2002. In 2006, 32 schools reported turning away 1,281 qualified applicants.
The University of Pittsburgh had the most rejections -- 740 of 850 applicants for its undergraduate nursing program were rejected this year.
"Of the students we turned away this year, the majority of them would have qualified for admission five years ago," said Jackie Dunbar-Jacob, dean of Pitt's nursing school. "Every student except a handful who applied to us this year would be able to get into a nursing program some place."
Nursing schools at Pitt, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Community College of Allegheny County have instituted tougher admission standards.
This marked the first year that Slippery Rock University asked students who applied for the fall to enroll in the spring instead.
"We're close to turning students away," said Cherith Simmer, assistant dean of Duquesne's nursing school. "Maybe next year, we will."
Hospital nursing programs are feeling the pinch, too.
This year, 365 applicants competed for 85 openings in the School of Nursing at West Penn Hospital. About 25 of the rejected applicants were qualified, said Nancy Cobb, director of the school. For West Penn, the issue is the lack of training space.
Pitt has eight faculty vacancies; IUP, seven; and CCAC, two. Slippery Rock is evaluating whether to add full-time teachers. Robert Morris University, Waynesburg College and Duquesne have no vacancies.
But with the typical full-time faculty member in his or her 50s, nursing schools are bracing for retirements.
The salary gap for a nurse educator, which requires a master's degree or a doctorate, and a nurse with comparable education in a hospital ranges from $5,000 to $20,000, local college administrators say.
"There is a big difference money-wise," said Michelle Doas, associate dean of nursing at CCAC.
Nationally, Rosseter said, a nurse practitioner with a master's degree can make an average of $72,480 a year while an associate professor with the same education makes an average of $58,249.
College administrators said hospitals are more willing to increase pay in response to the market. Academia tries to lure nurse educators with a shorter workday and year and tuition benefits for children.
Karen Paraska, of North Strabane, who will join Duquesne's faculty this fall as an assistant professor of nursing, said the shorter work year makes her pay comparable to her salary at Canonsburg Hospital and St. Clair Hospital Emergency Medicine.
As the mother of three children age 5 through 11, she likes the holidays and summers off and the prospect of free tuition for her children.
Some schools are addressing the faculty shortage by offering programs to train potential teachers.
Five years ago, Waynesburg started a master's degree program with a concentration in nurse education. IUP has proposed a doctoral program in nursing but is awaiting approval from the State System of Higher Education.
There are problems in finding classrooms and clinical sites.
"The hospital schools of nursing are filled to the gills with students, and those hospitals take their own students first," Caliendo said, citing Mercy, Shadyside and St. Margaret hospitals.
Carlow this fall will open a $1.5 million nursing lab where students practice taking care of each other and computerized mannequins that can simulate medical conditions.
About two years ago, Indiana began assigning students to evening shifts at hospitals to reduce the squeeze on clinical training sites. Because of a classroom crunch, West Penn is considering changing the way it schedules classes so it can accept more applicants.
"We would certainly expand if we had more hospitals that we could utilize and more permanent faculty," said Michele Gerwick, chairwoman of the Department of Nursing and Allied Health at IUP.
Paraska, who has a doctorate in nursing, said it's time to leave the emergency room and return to the classroom.
"I've always loved nursing," she said, "and it's time to pass that on to other people."
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