One of the inevitable consequences of an aging population is the loss of their significant contribution and influence upon society from myriad perspectives.
To account and plan for such inevitabilities is not simply wise, but rather, it is common sense and a hallmark of effective and competent management.
Having been warned of the potential for crisis, we would be wise to double down on solutions.
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Nursing Schools Brace For Faculty Shortage
by Sandy Hausman, WVTF
Listen to the Story Morning Edition; August 3, 2012; [4 min 16 sec] Download; 04:43 am
There have been lots of goodbye parties this year at the University of Virginia School of Nursing. So far, eleven professors have retired. That’s one-fourth of the faculty, and Dean Dorrie Fontaine is in no mood to celebrate.
Nursing students in a simulation lab at the University of Virginia School of Nursing. Photo by: Elizabeth Lee Cantrell/UVA School of Nursing
Over the next few years, the Affordable Care Act will probably boost demand for nurses to take care of the newly-insured, she says, “And I need faculty to teach the practitioners that are going to take care of these uninsured.”
In the last year, more than 76,000 qualified applicants were turned away, in large part because nursing schools didn’t have enough professors. Polly Bednash heads the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. She explains that nurses comprise the oldest workforce in the nation, and many of them kept working during the recession.
“They are going to leave in droves and are already leaving in some places where the economy is getting better,” she says.
Finding professors to Read the rest of this entry »
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