Final
2004 Colorado Nursing Faculty Supply & Demand

HEALTH CARE TASK FORCE

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09:44 AM -- The 2004 Colorado Nursing Faculty Supply and Demand Study

Lynn Dierker, Colorado Health Institute, provided an overview of the study that her organization conducted at the request of the Center for Nursing Excellence and funded by the Colorado Workforce Development Council. She distributed a copy of her presentation (Attachment I). A copy of the full study is available on the web at:

http://www.coloradonursingcenter.org/PDF/NFSDMarch2005.pdf.

Ms. Dierker discussed the focus of the study which was to understand the current nursing faculty supply and demand, to identify: key factors influencing supply, current and potential practices, and policy implication. She walked through the study methodology which included review of literature and data, data collection, and analysis. She discussed how they classified rural as being anything outside of the front range metropolitan area. She talked about the severity of need for clinical instructors in the 4-year programs.

Ms. Dierker explained some of the factors influencing faculty recruitment and retention including a noncompetitive work environment (salary and workload demands), rapid program expansions taxing the faculty (in Colorado in the last 1 to 3 years there have been increases in both the number of programs and the number of spots in each program), the need for innovation and new technology, Colorado's difficult budget situation, the national nursing faculty shortage, and barriers to obtaining graduate nursing degrees for those who have other demands in their lives.

Ms. Dierker talked about the impact of faculty shortages, stating that it limits the ability to train more nurses or to expand nursing programs, it compromises the quality of those coming out of nursing programs, and relies on the private sector and industry for resources to supplement nursing education. She added that the key findings of the report are: qualified applicants are being turned away from nursing programs, students are not successful in completing a programs due to inadequate pre-nursing preparation, and uneven curriculum standards within and between programs as a result of the rapid expansion.

Ms. Dierker continued discussing promising practices that are going on including collaborative investment by education and practice. There are innovative strategies to strengthen clinical education, redesigning nursing curriculum, and exploring opportunities for systemic redesign of education programs. Ms. Dierker summarized the key themes and policy implications: 1) balance quality and quantity (Colorado pushed for the expansion of nursing programs, but needs to get a sense of balance to be sure that the quality of students coming out of these programs is being maintained); 2) make it financially feasible and professionally attractive to serve as faculty (institutions need a succession plan for faculty); 3) promote nursing education innovations to optimize resources and improve quality (12 new programs have begun in the last 3 years); 4) align efforts to achieve investment in resources in higher education and nursing education; and 5) invest in data, monitoring, and educational research (to keep looking at supply and demand).

Representative Butcher expressed some concern about one of the policy statements related to quantity and quality of programs. Ms. Dierker stated that what she heard in the study was that new graduates are coming in to the clinical setting somewhat unprepared to be fully active, therefore they need more mentoring and adjustment time. She added that they are entering the field in a shortage situation so there is not as much time to get these new graduates up to speed, rather they need to hit the ground running.