The new four year degree programs in nursing and applied science will begin in 2011 in Pensacola Junior College who will offer workforce baccalaureate degrees with the first enrollment beginning in January of next year for 30 students and then another 20 student the following fall.

These are brand new courses and the college is currently recruiting the faculty although they already have two doctoral faculty in place for the nursing programs. They have also already secured $250,000 in funding for these programs from the Senate Committee on Higher Education Appropriations although they believe the start up costs to actually be quite minimal and they already have much of the infrastructure in place for these courses. They still need to get approvals from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges to begin but they are confident this will all work out positive for them.

Ed Meadows the PJC president said that “with only 24 percent of the Northwest Florida population having a bachelor’s degree compared to 29 percent in the state and 32 percent in the country, these programs will be a boost for this area”

PJC nursing college already offers a range of qualifications for new nurses including Nursing Associate Degree RN, Nursing Assisting, Perioperative Nursing, Practical Nursing, Registered Nursing (Career Mobility For LPN), Registered Nursing  (Paramedic To RN) and Surgical Technology.

Today, PJC serves about 30,000 students in Northwest Florida and Southern Alabama – offering full-service campuses in Milton, Pensacola and Warrington, as well as the Pensacola Downtown Center. More than 37 percent of graduating seniors from local high schools begin college life at PJC. PJC held its first day of class Sept. 13, 1948, as Florida’s first public junior college

The research published by the National League of Nursing (NLN) found that only an additional 15 nursing school programs have been added in the last year and overall enrollment is at the same levels as 12 months ago. With the severe shortage of nurses still out there and predictions of several hundred places being required over the next 10 years, and with the new health care plan for the nation this is a grim picture to be telling in 2010.

Demand is still outstripping supply

The biggest news in the survey (or perhaps not news to many but just underpins what we already know) is that the demand for places is far out stripping the supply in the industry. In fact for all types of nursing programs 23.4% of qualified applicants were turned away from courses during 2008 and for prelicensure programs a whopping 119,000 qualified people or 39% of applications were turned down. And these are from people who are appropriately qualified to get on the courses. There are many thousands of others who have applied and not been accepted.

The 2009 survey was conducted during May to September 2009 to collect data from 2007 and 2008 but still with the above information schools are still reporting unfilled vacancies in nursing programs. In fact overall there was a 9.8% unmet vacancy and those schools that replied said the main reasons were lack of qualified candidates and a lack of finance to complete the course.

This leads us to think that some areas of the country have massive over subscriptions and others simply can’t get qualified candidates otherwise the statistics that have been released don’t really add up.

What can you do to get into a nursing school of your choice ?

Well the old adage of moving where the work is equally applies to going where the vacancies are in nursing schools. Because of the massive demand which can only increase with a continued recession and having a health care plan which will raise awareness of becoming a nurse any prospective trainee nurse should look at a number of options and many different types of schools and colleges where they can study and get their degrees.

Options could include online colleges where generally there are places but also to look around the country at other accredited schools to see what is on offer. Overall across the US just over one third of the nation’s prelicensure nursing programs have continued to be located in the South; just over a quarter in the Midwest; and about one fifth in the Northeast. The smallest concentration of programs remains in the West, where just under 18 percent of programs were located in 2008.

The percentage of programs that turned away qualified candidates is as follows :

Prelicensure Programs :

• LPN / LVN – 21%
• ADN – 42%
• Diploma – 51%
• BSN 24%

Post Licensure Programs

• BSRN – 5%
• Masters – 14%
• Doctorate – 17%

Figures are for the Fall 2008

With the cost of a nursing degree program being anywhere between anywhere between $5,000 for an associate’s degree with a community college to around $30,000 to $40,000 for a bachelors degree at a public or private university or college you’ll not only need to plan ahead but be aware of some of the financial help that’s available.

Federal Nursing Grants and Loans

Millions of dollars are available from the federal government in the form of grants which will help pay some of the fees. The great thing about grants are that they never have to be repaid so this really is free money if you qualify. Here are some of the more common grants that nursing students take advantage of :

• Federal Pell Grants – this is one of the most popular and can cover general student aid, work-study and loans but is designed to pay tuition expenses and fees, room and lodging as well as books and even childcare. There are alternative loans under this scheme. In 2009 over $25 billion was awarded to over 7 million students with the average award being $3,611 which was approximately 30% higher than in 2008
• An academic competitiveness grant may be available in your first year of $750 and second year of $1,300
• A SMART grant known as the Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent grant is awarded up to $4,000 and pursing a maths, technology or computer based course
• If you’re studying to become a teacher then the TEACH grant of up to $4,000 may be available
• Other grants and loans from the government worth investigating include the federal plus loan, campus based programs, federal supplemental educational opportunity grants who require exceptional financial support and low interest federal perkins loans

Nursing Scholarships

Many of the universities and colleges may offer some form of scholarship program whereby smaller amounts of money are awared to those in approved programs. Other types of scholarships are based upon if you live in the area of the university or if you have a real financial need. There are many scholarship awards available and it’s best to either search through the universities websites to see what’s on offer or look through some of the specialist website that cater for these types of financial awards.

Private Student Loans

If after you have gone through all the options you still need some form of financing or financial aid then perhaps the last piece of the puzzle is to look at private student loans. Generally you can take these loans out and you don’t need to start paying them back until you complete your course. There are many options but check the terms and conditions as well the interest rates on offer.

Applying for Financial Aid

With some of these aid programs you’ll have to not only have certain eligibility requirements but also complete many forms but it’s worth it in the end if you can get paid to study and cut the amount of money you need to find yourself. Certainly for some of the federal programs you need to have at least a cumulative 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.

As demand has grown for people to study a degree course in nursing the places available in most nursing schools across the country hasn’t so demand has far outstripped supply and now the nursing school requirements have had to increase because of lack of places. Many perfectly qualified people are now being turned aways from colleges because there simply are not enough places.

High Salary and Demand for Nurses Continues

There are currently two main issues with qualified nurses in the US – firstly there is an aging process going on in the industry where many nurses are now near retirement age so we need new people to fill the gap left behind. Then there is the aging population in general who are living much longer and therefore are more likely to require hospital treatment. As these trends continue it’s estimated that there might be a shortfall of up to 260,000 nurses by 2020 – hard to believe we know but these are the statistics put out by the center for interdisciplinary health workforce studies and the federal government statistics put this nearer to 1 million.

More people are also thinking about this as a career because the average starting salaries are near to $60,000 per year which is a great deal more than flipping burgers and you are in a great caring profession.

What’s Happened so Far ?

Well if you read in the news at all you’ll see that many colleges and nursing schools are reporting over subscriptions to their programs and a recent survey suggests that in 2008 over 50,000 potential and perfectly qualified people did not get a place on a nursing course because there simply weren’t the places or facilities to undertake practical treatments.

In fact in the Plattsburgh state nursing program for fall 2010 over 960 people applied for the program but it only has 55 places available to students. This is an ever increasing trend from previous years in this state alone as the applicant figures have increased from 581 in 2008 and 656 in 2009 so a nursing career is hot in demand right now (and rightly so).

Lack of Facilities Produces Poor Results ?

There are over 3,000 accredited nursing courses in the US with over 200,000 students taking the exam each year (that figure was for the whole of 2009) but last year just under 72% achieved a pass rate for an RN degree (as per the national council of state boards of nursing for the NCLEX examinations). The percentage pass rate has slightly increased from previous years but this means there is still a failure rate of 30%.  Although there is no particular reason for this perhaps the actual training and standards need to change so that those actually being accepted onto course will achieve a pass rate at the board examinations.

It’s a real shame that people either take scholarships or grants or even fund this long course themselves and then don’t achieve their goals especially with such a nursing shortage and the number of places far less than those applying but with the nursing school requirements only to increase as the years progress there needs to be a change so that only the best candidates can be accepted so that the pass rate increases and the nursing shortage is just something we all write about this year alone.

A recent survey by the Florida Hospital Association showed that the turnover rate had now reached 15% the highest ever and the main reasons cited for people not completing their degrees was that they moved out to other job areas.

A real degree in nursing can take any where from 2 to 4 years to complete and requires a lot of study time in the evenings and weekends if the student is already holding down a full time job – add to that study time that the student has to also undertake some actual on the job experience then you may have thought the figure to be quite low and acceptable.

The charges universities and colleges make for degrees are not to be taken lightly but opting to study for any full or part time degree program calls for a massive commitment from the person’s life no matter what the subject matter is.

The call for qualified nurses has never been greater with the US population aging and people living much longer and many people look at it as not only a stable career with prospect but also see it as a vocational option. Of course the work is hard and the actual job very demanding from the patients but perhaps some folks look at it as an easy career option when clearly it isn’t.

The actual pass rate for the National Council Licensure Examination for registered nurses in 2008 and the first three quarters of 2009 in Florida state is a healthy 86.7% and some colleges here are looking at 2 year degree courses to help students out so long as they learn all that is required and can still pass the national exam although many hospitals will have the requirement for nurses to have first past a 4 year degree.

The demand for nursing degree studies has never been greater and some colleges are finding it difficult to recruit enough qualified people to actually teach the students. So some have opted to take their courses online. Over the past 5 or so years there have been many universities offering studies online from established colleges to only online versions which can make it better so students can study at their own pace so long as they have to undertake the practical nature of nursing at a later date and have to take the national exam in any case (as with any online courses it can be easy to cheat the process by getting someone else to sit your exams).

So although some nurses can hack the 4 year program there are many thousands who qualify as registered nurses each year (over 10,000 in Florida alone) and with the national requirement calling for another 1 million or so in the next 5 to 6 years there will be others who can commit to such a program and take their place as qualified nurses in the nation’s hospitals.

The nursing school in question is Owens Community College in Ohio and the students who were or are studying the two year degree progam now find that it will come without a national accreditation. Previously the national league of nursing had identified back in 2006 that the nursing school needed to improve its faculty credentials but had failed to do so.

Dr Renay Scott who is the nursing school’s new VP said that they had now filed papers for reaccreditation but that may not help all the current students that have been studying and many have already hire attornies to help in this situation. Owens College only revealed in October of this year that they had lost the accreditation but unfortunately was too late for the students to register at another school to continue their education.

Now the University of Toledo has stepped in after an informational session for worried students and they say their accreditation is rock solid and many have made the switch to the new program although the dean of UT says that only high quality students in the Owens program will be able to make the switch.

From current information it appears that four students are suing Owens because they claim that the school knew in 2007 that their accreditation was in jeopardy and failed to let students know. The lawsuit has already been filed for damages in excess of $25,000 for each student. In the lawsuit it alleges that the school received a letter in July 2007 to say the accreditation would be removed for its associate degree nursing program and the commission said not all of Owens’ faculty had graduate degrees in nursing, and Owens did not demonstrate educational effectiveness in several areas

As winter approaches the school nurse is especially busy at present. The US rules suggests that there is one school nurse per 1,500 pupils which is normally enough but with the presence of swine flu they are particularly stretched.

Most school nurses can not administer drugs but in Washington state school nurses must have at least a BS in nursing and complete an Educational Staff Associate (ESA) Certificate in School Nursing. What has been happening is that a whole school will be hit by the virus and some are reporting absentee rates of 10% – but it doesn’t stop there because kids play with kids from other schools and then those schools also get infected.

It’s of course best if you keep children at home if they have a temperature – a sure sign that they have flu and not the common cold (a cold does not come with a fever so you know which one you have although your child may not have swine flu they will certainly have a virus of some kind) – of course viruses generally can not be treated with any antibiotics and bed rest is generally thought to be the best “cure” although any parent who has a sick child and is worried should contact their doctor for more information.

Children are slowly being vaccinated but that doesn’t stop all the problems schools face and it may just be something we have to get used to whilst the winter months are here with the central heating systems turned on and dry air prevalent the virus spreads as generally kids don’t tend to wash their hands as much as adults. Luckily for most children the virus doesn’t last for long and they will get better in time.

Many schools have now received their allocation of the H1N1 vaccines and have started their vaccination programs but because of the huge numbers involved it may take several months for everyone to receive theirs. The US general advice is priority is given to people in the following groups: pregnant women; caregivers of infants under 6 months of age; anyone 6 months to 24; anyone 25 to 64 years of age with a chronic illness; and medical workers who provide direct care.

If you are worried or want more information then either contact your doctor or browse the US health service website.