Nursing educational organizations are turning away thousands of certified candidates despite the estimated nursing shortage simply because there is also a deficiency of nursing teachers. But nursing educational organizations that use an online model is helping to convert nursing education and learning by making college available to a broader pool of learners. “The supply of nursing teachers will depend on the number of nursing students choosing to engage in innovative education and learning,” says Vi Wilkes, MA, MSN, Ed.D., RN. “Through the inclusion of web based programs and degree choices, nursing educational organizations are able to enroll more learners, which is essential today with the school shortage.”
According to a study by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), 75,587 nursing school candidates were declined entrance this year alone. The reasons revealed by nursing educational organizations for turning away certified learners involved not only deficiency of staff, but inadequate class room space and clinical teaching sites. In other words, conventional organizations lack capacity to provide the ever-increasing numbers of learners. Wilkes says it is essential for the nursing market to complete open staff roles in nursing educational organizations by gaining more nursing staff to a career in education and learning, but first nursing staff must earn a high degree level.
To achieve this goal, she says that the nursing profession must let go of ingrained social values about conventional methods for nursing education. “Nursing educational organizations need to reconsider the ways in which Nursing experiences are obtained and the way nursing education and learning in general is provided,” says Wilkes. The nursing market needs not only more nursing staff, but also more educated nursing staff, says Wilkes. Both the Institution of Medicine (IOM) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching have echoed Wilkes, nursing staff should advance to greater stages of education. Wilkes says that modification enhancements are motivated when there are shortages of staff and clinical sites. Additionally, there is a need to increase registration of potential BSN learners for those learners to continue the degree and learning further in masters and doctoral program. Through the inclusion of web based programs and degree choices, nursing educational organizations are able to enroll more learners and customize the web based programs in a way to make the most out of both the clients’ and faculty’s time in a versatile, anytime, anywhere asynchronous method.