Continued from Page 1

When hiring faculty members, traditional schools place more emphasis on degrees earned and research published than for-profit schools do. Most universities won’t hire a faculty member full time unless he or she has a doctorate, Priscilla Dunson Bartolone, director of the nursing program at South University, a proprietary college system based in Savannah, Ga., told the Chronicle.

Unlike traditional colleges and universities, proprietary colleges don’t have to “be all things to all people,” and have the luxury of being able to drop programs that aren’t profitable, Barry said.

Although Barry wasn’t allowed to say how much money Corinthian’s nursing program has generated for the college system, she said the program has been profitable and that it has a waiting list of students.

But despite the apparent advantages that proprietary schools have over traditional schools, proprietary schools adding nursing programs is a recent phenomenon. Just five or six years ago, for-profit schools generally didn’t start nursing programs because state boards were not as open to it, Barry said, not to mention the challenges associated with meeting prescribed student-to-teacher ratios, managing relationships with hospitals and ensuring high student completion rates.

A for-profit system that has nursing programs in more than one state also must meet the different program requirements of the different state nursing boards. State boards require students to perform from anywhere between 700 and more than 1,500 hours of clinical work, and have their own requirements for student-to-teacher ratios.

“It’s not one size fits all,” Barry said.

Barry said she believes for-profit schools have an easier time starting nursing programs now because state boards are more open to new solutions to the shortage, which is thought to be more pervasive than other nursing shortages of the recent past.

Based on trends in the supply of RNs and anticipated demand, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration predicts the shortage should double to 12 percent in 2010 and should continue to grow to 29 percent by 2020, according to a report the agency released in July 2002.

Timing out

Part of the reason the shortage is expected to worsen is because the nursing workforce—with an average age of 46—is quickly headed toward retirement.

The nursing faculty workforce—with an average age of 51—will get there even faster. The percentage of RNs who are in education already has dropped dramatically, from 3.7 percent of the workforce in 1980 to 2.1 percent of the workforce in 2000, according to the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses.

With nurses and nurse instructors preparing to retire, for-profit schools know that nursing programs are needed more than ever and are tailoring their programs to meet nursing board standards.

Roberta Ramont, MS, RN, regional nursing director of Corinthian’s California LVN program, is developing a curriculum that meets the standards of the state’s Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians, which requires LVNs to complete 954 hours of clinical work and 576 hours of theory. The curriculum that Ramont is developing focuses on critical thinking skills, which a lot of for-profit nursing programs haven’t done in the past, she said.

Students will study the transcultural nursing theories of Madeleine Leininger, Ph.D., RN, to become more aware of their cultural perspectives and the diversity of their clients.

Students also will use a book tailored specifically for VN/PN students, which Ramont says is unusual for the VN/PN population. Ramont co-authored the book, Fundamental Nursing Care, which is published by Prentice Hall.

Corinthian’s VN/PN students take the National Council Licensure Examination for Practical Nurses at the end of their 12th month in the program. Ellen Lee, MS, RN, Corinthian’s director of nursing and allied health, said the program is designed to serve as a career ladder to becoming a registered nurse.

Officials at proprietary colleges hope that as they create more nursing programs that meet state nursing board standards, they will help produce more qualified registered nurses—and prevent the shortage from reaching the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ prediction of more than 1 million vacant registered nursing positions by 2010.

Contact Rebecca Ray at rebeccar@nurseweek.com.