Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2004 | 10:33 a.m.
Henderson has successfully recruited a new nursing university and is talking with other schools about starting nursing programs in the city.
There are currently seven colleges and universities that offer nursing degrees in Nevada, and some say that adding private schools will not ease the nursing and faculty shortages.
Henderson Economic Development Manager Bob Cooper has been traveling between the valley and Southern California in search of nursing schools that might want to open a campus in his city. He has successfully recruited National University in La Jolla, Calif., and is negotiating with a private college in Orange County, but declined to say which one.
"The issue is that we are last in the nation for number of nurses per capita and we're continuing to grow," Cooper said. "To recruit nurses is really a challenge."
Nevada has 520 nurses per 100,000 people, compared with the national average of 782 nurses per 100,000 people. California ranked near last with 544 nurses per 100,000 people, but that was before it implemented mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios in January.
Cooper said increasing the number of nursing schools would enable Southern Nevada to grow its own labor force and keep the nurses in Nevada once they're trained.
National University plans to open a campus in Henderson for nursing and four other programs, but a location has not been determined, said Hoyt Smith, spokesman for the university.
The private university, which has 16,600 full-time students in California, plans in January to submit its feasibility proposal to the Nevada State Board of Nursing, which must approve all nursing programs in the state.
If everything goes according to plan, the first nursing students would be accepted in the fall of 2005, Smith said.
Other nursing schools in Southern Nevada include the Community College of Southern Nevada, Nevada State College and University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine and the University of Southern Nevada say they plan to start nursing programs.
The Community College of Southern Nevada has 431 students enrolled in associate's degree nursing programs for this semester and the school is trying to increase that number to 500 students, said Fran Brown, dean of the College of Health Sciences at CCSN.
During the last regular legislative session, a bill was passed to double Nevada's nursing programs and add a summer session.
As the number of nursing students increases, CCSN needs more faculty to teach and supervise the students during their clinical rotations at hospitals, Brown said.
The Nevada State Board of Nursing requires one master's degree-level nurse to supervise each group of eight nursing students during their rotations.
CCSN was not able to take all of the qualified nursing applicants because additional faculty members are needed, Brown said. The college has hired 14 nursing faculty since January, bringing the total to 25 full-time faculty and 18 part-time faculty.
"We have a major issue with finding faculty," Brown said. "If we had faculty, we've got students to teach."
She said most nurses with higher-level degrees who are qualified to teach would rather have private practices as nurse practitioners where they can earn more money.
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas has three nursing programs. The bachelor's degree program has 144 students each year that start in the fall, spring or summer semesters. The master's degree and doctorate degree programs prepare students to become nurse practitioners or professors of nursing.
UNLV is also turning away students because of the lack of faculty. The nursing program has 22 full-time instructors and eight part-time instructors.
"By opening another nursing program in Southern Nevada, all we're going to be doing is pulling the faculty from the current programs," UNLV nursing dean Carolyn Yucha said. "Bringing in a private school won't do much for us. We would be better off with some partnerships or some more competitive salaries nationally to recruit people here."
Nevada State College launched a bachelor's degree in nursing a year ago. The college also offers an accelerated program for those who meet certain prerequisites.
There are about 160 nursing students enrolled now and about 35 of them will graduate in the spring, said Connie Carpenter, nursing director for Nevada State College.
She said she does have a few qualified nursing applicants on a waiting list this year because four more faculty members are needed. Nevada State has 11 full-time instructors and seven part-time.
"Even if we all produced at the maximum I'm not sure we could meet the needs of the new hospitals opening," Carpenter said.
She said she would welcome additional nursing programs because competition makes existing programs better.
Bill Welch, president and chief executive of the Nevada Hospital Association, said additional nursing schools would help Nevada with its nursing crisis.
"I am supportive of private nursing schools coming into the state," he said. "We cannot solely depend on the public education system. Any time the state's financial situation is bad, we're at risk of losing those programs or having them cut."
"We struggle when we need to expand to get through the regulatory and legislative process," he added.
Welch said it took two regular sessions to convince the state to increase funding to double the public nursing programs, which was approved during the last regular legislative session.
With the doubling of the nursing programs, Nevada's seven nursing schools will still not graduate enough students to fill the 979 nursing vacancies in Nevada's 34 hospitals or fill the nearly 750 new positions that open annually to keep pace with population growth, he said.
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