Augusta Tech could add nursing program

ATLANTA --- By the end of today, Augusta could have a new education path for nurses.

The Georgia Board of Nurses is considering, during meetings that began Thursday and end today, granting a request for a two-year, associate-degree registered nursing degree at Augusta Technical College.

"It's hard to expand programs in the minds of many people when you have budget cuts, but this has been a priority for us for several years," said Augusta Tech President Terry Elam.

The school will continue its program producing licensed practical nurses alongside its new RN classes.

Across town, Augusta State University is discontinuing its two-year, RN program now that it's starting a four-year program.

Adding capacity is critical because many experts say Georgia has a shortage of nurses. A report released today by the University System of Georgia's Center for Health Workforce Planning and Analysis shows the state ranked 46th by one measure of its ratio of nurses to the general population.

"Our data suggest it's a statewide problem, and we're already in a shortage," said Ben Robinson, the director of the center.

It's not for a lack of people interested in becoming nurses. Last year, there were 50,000 college applicants nationally who passed the entrance exam but were denied admission.

The solution isn't obvious or simple, according to Dee Keeton, the president of the Georgia Board of Nursing, the state agency that licenses nurses.

"People think the answer is to have more schools, but the challenge is clinical sites," she said.

Under political pressure and a new state law, the board began for the first time this year authorizing for-profit nursing schools. With 48 schools already approved and nine seeking approval, finding places in hospitals for the students to practice clinical skills first-hand is getting increasingly difficult.

Educators at public schools feared that the for-profit schools would simply boost their tuition enough to pay hospitals to accept their students for clinical rotations. However, the Nursing Board decided Thursday to prohibit it. Just as big a challenge is finding instructors.

"We compete among each other, and we compete against hospitals," said Charlotte Price, the head of the nursing department at Augusta State.

Instructors must have master's or doctorate degrees even though they could make 20 percent to 40 percent more in a hospital, experts say. Compounding the situation is the growing number of retirements by instructors from the Baby Boom.

To produce more instructors, the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia State University have begun new programs for advanced degrees.

One MCG program, for example, is geared toward students who already have bachelor's degrees in anything from marketing to biology. It's the first in Georgia and among the first 10 in the country. In four intensive semesters, students graduate with a Master of Science in nursing and an RN license.

"Our clinical partners are very excited about these graduates because they have life experiences and they come into those clinical settings with a different mind-set than typical nursing managers whose careers has been exclusively in medicine," said Janie Heath, the associate dean for academic affairs in MCG's nursing school.