Patients are not the only ones suffering in a nationwide nurse shortage that has spread through hospitals and some private practices; universities are beginning to feel the sting, too.
To meet the demand for a nursing faculty, the ASU College of Nursing will implement a new doctor of nursing science degree, said Barbara Durand, dean of nursing.
"With this program, we are going to be able to graduate people from ASU with a doctorate," Durand said. "(They) will be eligible to be faculty, but we'll also be able to attract and hire quality faculty."
In 2003, 614 faculty vacancies were reported in more than 300 nursing schools across the United States, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nurses. Of those vacancies, about 60 percent required a doctorate.
The shortage has affected ASU as well; the college has been searching for a pediatrics professor for six years.
"[Pediatric professors] are so few and far between that they're hard to recruit," Durand said. "That's because everybody else in the country is looking for somebody in pediatrics."
The degree, which was approved by the Arizona Board of Regents in January, will be geared toward nurses interested in leadership roles in teaching, research and health policy, she said.
Durand said nursing shortages cycle every 10 years or so, but that the current demand for nurses has risen because of an aging population and an increased interest in other fields.
"Women have been picking other fields," she said. "In the old days, women used to think primarily in the terms of nursing or teaching, but, with so many more opportunities available, there has been an effect on the number of people who have considered nursing."
Calls for program applications have come in but classes won't start until fall 2005. The college has been working on the program for more than two years, and plans to hire up to four new faculty members within the next 12 months.
Nursing junior Julia Rhoades said the shortage is bad, but that it has provided increased job security for graduates.
"Job security is a large motivation for why a lot of people are in the nursing program now, but I haven't experienced a shortage as far as faculty goes," she said.
Sandy Jarvis, a registered nurse and associate professor in the graduate program, said the degree is a welcomed relief, but immediate impact won't be seen because of the great demand.
"We're not giving the service we would like to give -- our schedules are so full, especially in hospitals," Jarvis said. "You're not giving the care you want to give because people are so hurried and can't take the extra time they would like to.
"I think we are seeing just the middle of the nursing shortage, not the end of it yet," she said.
To help boost enrollment, the College of Nursing also started a nursing program at ASU's east campus last month and plans to expand enrollment at ASU West by 40 students.
Reach the reporter at jacqueline.shoyeb@asu.edu.
