NurseWeek: Editor's Note - Accept the Challenge

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Editor's Note

Accept the challenge
The quality of tomorrow's nurses depends on how we teach them today
Carol Bradley, MSN, RN, California Editor
July 2, 2001

So, who says no one wants to be a nurse anymore? Unlike other parts of the United States, we in California apparently have academically qualified young people standing in line waiting for the chance to become nurses.

In a recent communication from a nursing dean, she explained that she had just completed sending acceptance letters to 40 students for entry in the fall. What was interesting about this news was that these students were only just the lucky ones among the many more qualified applicants that this program had to choose from.

Other educational leaders have repeated this story to me as well. If we could find a way to make room for these potential students in our nursing educational system, not only would it help address the escalating RN vacancy rate in California, but we would have a good chance of improving our cultural diversity as well.

So what will it take? First and foremost, it will take rapid approval and implementation of the many state and federal legislative initiatives to expand funding for nursing education. In the meantime, health care systems need to be prepared to help provide significant bridge funding to programs that have the potential to increase their student capacity. Hospitals also need to increase scholarship funds and work creatively to expand clinical sites for student rotations.

However, even if we are successful in improving the financial resources for nursing education, the availability of qualified faculty remains one of the most difficult and intractable issues confronting our nursing leadership and standing in the way of success.

Education as a functional area of study was all but forgotten as most graduate nursing programs shifted their resources to produce advanced practice nurses in recent years. As a result, we will have to begin now to replenish our faculty resources for the future.

Unlike other professions in academia, the gap between nursing faculty salaries and those in the practice setting is growing. Some new grads make more money than the nursing faculty who delivered them to the threshold of their career. Many of the potential faculty who work in our practice settings can hardly afford to consider teaching, even as an adjunct to their present jobs. The nursing community needs to help advocate for strengthening compensation for faculty in our colleges and universities.

While nursing education faculty are the oldest cohort of nurses within our workforce, other challenges relate to our education colleagues as well. While we all know that the practice environment has changed dramatically in the last decade, some nursing faculty do not fully understand the impact of these changes on the practice of nursing.

While clinical competence remains a critical priority for faculty today, it is just as important to have an understanding of the social, political and operational shifts that have occurred in the care environment as well. Expectations of nurses today in the clinical environment have less to do with hands-on care; they have far more to do with managing the complex care systems that exist in hospitals. The nursing curriculum needs to address these changes and teach nurses how to function in this complex maze.

Along with a shortage of clinical faculty, many dean and director positions are becoming vacant as well. Never before have we needed more strength, courage and creativity in the leadership of our educational institutions. We need to promote entry into doctoral education at a younger age, to increase the productive teaching years of faculty and build a qualified pool for tomorrow’s educational leadership.

To promote expansion of student capacity in the short run, we need to rethink how the education of the nursing student occurs and what role we have in that process. Any nurse in any clinical setting has the potential to contribute to the educational process.

We need to consider using students differently in the clinical environment and offer more meaningful and realistic student experiences. Students also need clinical experiences that are not restricted to weekday, daytime hours, which represent only a small segment of a real shift. With some creativity and effort, we can expand our clinical capacity for students in most settings.

Regardless of where nursing has taken us in our careers, we can all share accountability for preparing the next generation of nurses.

What do you think?
Email us at editor@nurseweek.com