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Local nursing programs scrambling for faculty
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Bill Zlatos can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7828.
"The faculty shortage is an extremely serious problem because there's only one way you can be a nurse, and that's come to a nursing program," said Kathleen Malloy, vice president of health professions at CCAC. "And if the nursing program can't get qualified nursing faculty, then you can't accept students."
CCAC is one of many local colleges scurrying to hire nursing faculty. Experts here say the problem is serious, but not as acute as it is nationally because of the many graduate nursing programs in the region that churn out potential teachers.
The reasons for the teacher shortage: an aging nursing faculty, lower pay and a philosophical shift in the 1990s that discouraged nurses from getting the graduate degrees they needed to teach.
The average age for nursing faculty around the country is 55. Depending on the school where they work, they can make up to $45,000 a year, said Lynda Davidson, dean of nursing and allied health at Robert Morris University. In contrast, she said, a practicing nurse can make up to $60,000.
The result: About 3,500 students are enrolled in doctoral programs -- the degree generally required for faculty positions -- at 88 nursing schools in the United States, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Only 419 doctoral students graduated last spring, down 10 percent from the previous year.
Undergraduate programs, meanwhile, are swelling.
Enrollments at Duquesne University's nursing school rose to 400 undergraduate and 150 graduate students. That forced the school to hire 10 more part-time teachers.
"Our enrollment has doubled over two years," said Eileen Zungolo, dean of nursing at Duquesne. "There's a resurgence in interest in nursing as a career."
CCAC, the eighth-largest producer of associate nursing degrees in the country, enrolled 850 nursing students last year and 1,100 this fall, a 29 percent increase.
"We're fighting to meet our needs in our programs because our enrollment went up," Malloy said. "We're covered for this semester, which began Monday, but it took us a lot to get there."
Carlow College has 350 nursing students. "We're not turning away students at this point, but I could foresee how it could easily happen," said Michele Upvall, chairwoman of the division of nursing at Carlow.
Indiana University of Pennsylvania nearly doubled the number of freshman nursing students from 100 in 2002 to 199 students last year. The university has added eight nursing teachers over the past two years.
Robert Morris University in Moon is in the second year of its nursing program. It expected 50 students this year but admitted 70.
"When I got this large number of qualified students, I went to the administration and asked for more resources because we need more faculty if we admit more students," said Davidson, RMU's nursing dean.
The University of Pittsburgh has 476 undergraduate nursing students -- about the same as last year.
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