GREENSBORO, N.C. — With a shortage of nurses across the country, including in North Carolina, schools say a lack of nursing instructors and clinical sites is limiting the number of nursing students they can admit and educate.
“The faculty shortage in nursing schools around the country, it’s real, it’s real all across the United States," said Dr. Cecil Holland, the Associate Dean of Nursing of Winston-Salem State University.
According to a report issued by Mercer, by 2025, North Carolina will be short nearly 13,000 nurses. Nursing schools are also struggling to get people to teach aspiring nurses. The U.S. nursing faculty vacancy rate in 2020 was 6.5% and it was 9.6% in North Carolina, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). Nursing schools turned away 80,407 qualified applicants, according to an AACN survey and they listed faculty shortages as a top reason.
Nursing school leaders also say pay is a factor in why nurses choose to not be educators. The average salary for a nurse practitioner is $110,000. The average salary for a master's-prepared Assistant Professor is $79,444. Nurse educators usually need at least a Master's degree and clinical experience.
“(There are) very competitive salaries in nursing and often, most of the time, nurses who work in the clinical area make more than nurses that work in academia," said Holland.
Alamance Community College leaders said they face similar issues as four-year schools like UNCG and WSSU, but also compete with four-year schools for faculty.
“(Four-year) schools have deeper pockets than a community college does so they can offer a little bit more than we can offer and we can’t compete with the hospital's nurses either," said David Frazee, the Dean of Health and Public Services for ACC. "A nurse in a hospital can make quite a bit more money than teaching at a community college.”
A need for more clinical sites to get nursing students hands-on training is also limiting schools. Nursing school leaders with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro say they get about 400 pre-nursing candidates interested in their programs, more than they can accommodate.
“COVID has put some limitations on our clinical sites in terms of numbers of students that can go at one time and those kinds of things," said Debra Barksdale, the Dean of Nursing at UNCG. "But you can imagine that if you have 200 to 300 students that all need to be in a clinical facility - and that’s just one school here in this area and there were others - that are also around that need the same facilities, it can get kind of tight."
Nursing school leaders also say instructors are aging and choosing to retire, leaving holes in academia.
“There’s a shortage of nursing across the state and without faculty to teach the nurses, to get them into those spots, it’s going to be a long time before we get to that point," said Frazee.
But even throughout the difficulties of the pandemic, all three nursing school leaders agree that there's still a strong desire from many to become nurses.
“The interest has increased because people can see the impact and importance of having well prepared, well educated qualified competent nurses particularly at the bedside but also at all levels," said Barksdale.
Barksdale also said to not be discouraged if you were not accepted due to the school not having space.
“Don’t give up. Never give up your passion," Barksdale said. "We need you, the people in the communities need you, the state of North Carolina needs you."
Holland with WSSU encourages aspiring nurses to look at all of their options.
“If you want to be a nurse, we would certainly like to have you but seek other programs, investigate other programs if nursing is truly your passion or desire," said Holland.