Confronting nursing shortage problems head-on
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The face of nursing has changed as the shortage crisis has evolved during Starck's tenure at UTHSC-Houston.
"For one thing, we've gotten more diverse," she said. "There are more males in the nursing industry, and the responsibility of nurses has increased."
Starck said an increase in the number of aging baby boomers and more successful treatments of chronic illnesses have led to more accountability for nurses. Those numbers also represent a spike in demand for nursing professionals.
Texas rejects more than 8,000 qualified prospective nursing students each year due to a lack of teaching professionals. A deficit of 70,000 nurses is expected by the year 2020 in the state. (Texas currently faces a shortfall of 22,000 nurses.)
"The state needs to quadruple the number of nurses we are graduating each year," Starck said, in order to wipe out the shortage. "I don't see that the shortage will be solved any time soon."
The main reason for this grim forecast, Starck said, is that "young ones are not in the pipeline, ready to replace retiring faculty."
UTHSC-Houston stands to increase enrollment by 100 students with each new group of graduating Ph.D. students. The effort is one of several across the region designed to confront the shortage.
"Everybody is doing something innovative," Starck said.
UTHSC-Houston implemented an accelerated baccalaureate nursing program in 2005. The initiative allows candidates with bachelor's degrees an opportunity to earn a Registered Nurse (RN) license through an intensive one-year program.
Meanwhile Angelo State University offers distance learning and Internet classes for working Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs) seeking RN-certification. Beginning this fall, Texas Woman's University will team with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi to offer a cooperative Ph.D. program in nursing.
Starck said there have been a number of contenders interested in nursing faculty positions in recent years. "So now the problem is finding resources," she said, since the current economic recession has led to decreases in endowment incomes at most universities.
Conversely, the demand for qualified nurses seems to thrive as an industry resistant to recession, if not recession-proof.
"Nurses have always been able to find jobs, but as the shortage has grown worse, the options have gotten better for new graduates," Starck said, adding recent grads are generally able to work at the location of their choice as well as name their hours and negotiate salaries with more leverage than in past years.
