This is a critical time for nursing. Our ongoing efforts to alleviate the shortage of nurses at the bench, bedside, and in the classroom are facing a setback if President George W. Bush’s proposed fiscal year 2008 budget is approved without modification.
While we appreciate the President’s support now and historically for nursing, this year’s budget presents nursing schools with a $44 million decrease in funding for Nursing Workforce Development Programs and provides no funds for the Advanced Education Nursing program. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) indicates this lack of funding for the Advanced Education Nursing program could eliminate the grants and traineeships that provide vital financial support for graduate nursing students and future nurse faculty. The AACN reported in 2006 that almost 42,600 qualified applicants were turned away from baccalaureate degree programs primarily because of a faculty shortage. And we know that with projected retirements for current nursing faculty members that we need to renew the pipeline today for tomorrow’s teachers.
In 2004, the Associated Press reported that the average age of a nursing faculty member as 51.5 and the average retirement age as 62. At this rate, we will lose hundreds of nurse educators each year for the next 15 years. Unfortunately, without federal support of our academic assistance programs, there will continue to be a limited number of doctorally-prepared faculty and an overall lack of qualified teaching applicants. Without funding, institutions will not be able to offer competitive salaries to potential professors interested in teaching clinical courses and conducting research.
As the U.S. population ages, we need not only to be concerned with attracting and preparing more caregivers to the nursing profession, we also need to work toward educating the researchers who will make a difference in advancing healthy aging outcomes, as well as training the future faculty members who will replace our retiring workforce.
President Bush has recognized the importance of the impending nurse shortage by offering increased support for the National Institute of Nursing Research and the Nurse Loan Repayment and Scholarship Programs which will help incoming students. However, the potential cuts in funding for graduate nursing education programs could impact the ability of schools of nursing to produce sufficient numbers of educators to teach the 800,000 nurses our country will need by 2010.
Working together, we can show our president and elected officials the importance continued funding of all nursing programs and initiatives. For more information on the proposed FY 2008 federal budget and its impact on nursing and healthcare, visit www.aacn.nche.edu.
