Nurse Educators Debate Strategies to Offset Faculty Shortage

Nurse education leaders from 11 states are convening in Portland, Ore., to discuss new strategies to overcome the nurse faculty shortage, the Associated Press reports. At the conference, which is sponsored by the Center to Champion Nursing in America—a joint creation of AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—nurse educators will evaluate a model that blends the curriculum and faculty of community colleges with that of universities to provide nursing students in two-year associate degree programs the opportunity to earn bachelor's degrees. Under the Oregon Consortium for Nursing Education, the Oregon Health and Science University School of Nursing, along with eight local community colleges, will collaborate to allow students in rural areas of the state to complete their coursework for a bachelor's degree while remaining in their community. According to educators, a nurse with a bachelor's degree is more likely to go on to earn an advanced degree or pursue teaching than their less-educated counterparts. The conference will include representatives from California, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Washington (McCall, AP/Dalles Chronicle, 10/26/09).