SMSU addresses nursing shortage

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Shortages in all areas of nursing have led local hospitals to offer recruitment incentives and Southwest Missouri State University to offer new degree programs to increase options and salaries for nurses. |ret||ret||tab|

SMSU introduced two new post-master's nursing certificate programs this fall the Family Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Educator programs. The new programs are for nurses who already have masters' degrees in nursing but want to pursue another specialty area, according to Kathryn L. Hope, PhD, head of SMSU's department of nursing. |ret||ret||tab|

"Nurses are in extreme shortage nationally," Hope said. "One of the reasons for that is there is a huge demand for nurses because of the health promotion movement. There are also fewer students going into nursing." |ret||ret||tab|

She said the shortage extends to nursing faculty as well as nurses in hospital and clinical settings.|ret||ret||tab|

"... Twenty-five percent of all nursing faculty in the United States will be eligible for retirement in the next three or four years," Hope said. She said some schools of nursing are already being forced to limit their enrollment because of faculty shortages. |ret||ret||tab|

Rita Snavely, a St. John's Regional Health Center nurse administrator, is pursuing a master's degree in nursing from SMSU. She said the shortage is especially felt by nurses working in the hospital and clinical settings.|ret||ret||tab|

"Nursing isn't the most popular career to enter at this time," Snavely said. "We're all feeling stretched to work extra hours for nurses who aren't there."|ret||ret||tab|

St. John's Human Resources Manager Randy Myers said the nursing shortage is cyclical and that the employment pendulum is swinging back to the point where nurses, as well as other medical personnel, are in high demand.|ret||ret||tab|

"We are doing some things in response to the nursing shortage and in response to the very low unemployment rate locally," Myers said. "We've started an employee referral bonus program ... we evaluate sign-on bonuses on an as-needed basis. On occasion, we will do a sign-on bonus for employees such as pharmacists, nuclear medicine technologists and some of the scarce allied-health professionals," Myers said. |ret||ret||tab|

He said St. John's also is using television advertising and its Web site for recruitment purposes.|ret||ret||tab|

Cox Health Systems Vice President of Human Resources Don Anderson agreed that the shortage is not limited to nurses.|ret||ret||tab|

"Actually, we have a shortage of all qualified people, not just nurses. We're doing anything and everything we can to attract people to Cox. The nursing shortage is symptomatic of a general shortage of manpower. We do referral and sign-on bonuses, in particular, referral bonuses for critical-care nurses, which is a special need for us right now, as it is nationwide," Anderson said. |ret||ret||tab|

Hope said she thinks both of SMSU's new certificate programs will encourage nurses who may have left the field to return to it. |ret||ret||tab|

"A lot of people are coming back into patient care after having left the field or serving in different roles in the field of health care," she said. |ret||ret||tab|

Students enrolled in the Family Nurse Practitioner or Nurse Educator programs take only the specialization courses. The FNP program is 30 credit hours and 624 clinical hours and can be completed in three semesters and a summer. |ret||ret||tab|

It covers advanced pharmacology and primary care and prepares a nursing student to take the National Family Nurse Practitioner Certificate Exams. Family Nurse Practitioners provide care to individuals and families primarily in ambulatory settings. |ret||ret||tab|

The NE program is 12 credit hours and 192 clinical hours and can be completed in two semesters.|ret||ret||tab|

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