President William Bloodworth of Augusta State University has a tough job. With mandated budget cuts from the state, he had to sit down with his red pen and decide what academic programs at ASU would be put on the chopping block.
I assume that in doing this, he considered the impact not only on the local student population, but on the needs of the community on the local and national level.
AS A COLLEGE president, President Bloodworth surely did due diligence on these matters. These are some of the facts that I'm sure he must have been aware of when he decided that elimination of the School of Nursing was appropriate:
In the July/August 2009 issue of Health Affairs, Dr. Peter Buerhaus and his co-authors found that, despite the current easing of the nursing shortage due to the recession, the U.S. nursing shortage is projected to grow to 260,000 registered nurses by 2025.
The American Hospital Association surveyed more than 5,000 community hospitals in early 2007. The results of this survey, released in July 2007, revealed that hospitals across the nation needed 116,000 RNs to fill immediate vacancies. Work force shortages reportedly are contributing to decreased staff satisfaction, emergency department overcrowding and decreased patient satisfaction. This information is from the American Nurses Association.
They go on to point out that schools of nursing with entry-level baccalaureate, associate and diploma programs were forced to reject more than 147,000 qualified applicants for 2005 because of a lack of instructors.
THE CSRA IS BLESSED to have more than one training program for registered nurses. Perhaps this was the rationale behind Dr. Bloodworth's decision: Oh, someone else will have to fix this problem. It's not a high priority for us. Interesting thought process there.
As a local nurse, I've seen the quality of nurses produced by ASU. These nurses are consistently among the best-prepared graduates in the area. They come from school with the knowledge and tools to quickly make a difference in the lives of the people of our community.
With all respect to the other programs at ASU, do English, history, philosophy, etc., majors help save lives on a daily basis? Is there another program of study at ASU that fills the need on a national and local level that nursing does?
According to ASU sources quoted in The Augusta Chronicle, there are 600 students taking prerequisites for the nursing program at ASU. This doesn't sound like a program that needs to be trimmed. In fact, the state of Georgia stated that there was a need for this program when they approved the expansion from an associate's degree program to a bachelor's degree program.
I'd be very interested in hearing the justification that Dr. Bloodworth has for the decision he has made. From the outside looking in, it seems shortsighted, ill-prepared and just wrong.
(The writer is a nurse with University Health Care System in Augusta.)
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Davis-Adams-Rahn (yes, I know he's gone, but we know what happened) have dictated the story they wanted the smaller university system schools to tell. They told Bloodworth and the others what to say. Some reporter, please, ask Bloodworth, point blank, what he was told. But actually, a state legislature investigation of this episode with college presidents under oath would be informative.
I don't think they should eliminate the "nursing program". Science has proven that babies have a much stronger immune system if they are breast feed. Not to mention the bonding. Is breast a bad word?
The president and professors are interested in their students. Give us a break. They are trying to avoid "red ink" on their own jobs. No students, no six figure salaried, tenured jobs. "I love to teach". Will you volunteer your time at no cost? I don't think soooo
I too wonder why Dr. William Bloodworth made the decision he made regarding Augusta State University's nursing program. He's certainly spending wastefully in other areas, including putting thousands and thousands of dollars into a Georgia Public Broadcasting radio studio that he apparently has no control over. Next time you want to know about why the university is struggling to meet budget shortfalls, ask about that and however else he's wasting your government money.