Impacted Nursing Programs & Nursing Shortages?

it just bothers me how you always hear there's a nursing shortage problem. and being college bound i plan to take up nursing. then you're informed that the nursing program at the school you're planning to attend is impacted.


and its not only one specific school but most schools in california. i know there are a multitude of problems our society faces but healthcare should be a major priority. in major cities like Los Angeles and Long Beach, shouldnt they put an emphasis on healthcare and try to combat teh nursing shortage by expanding teh nursing programs?


your thoughts?

There is ultimately the lack of instructors that is the problem. Only a minimum of students can be enrolled at a time each semester. Although, more & more nursing schools are allowing those with an Associate Degree teach. This will certainly help.
Also, the shortage will keep increasing as the Baby Booming nurses reach retiring age.

Once you get through the nursing program & pass the NCLEX....You will have job security for sure.

I do disagree about one answerer mentioning that students are a liability for the hospital. In my experience, all the facilities I was a student at were very eager to having students. This means more potential new employees to fill in the holes. Students are also "fresh" & offer the time to focus on one patient at a time; this opportunity helps find numerous errors within the facility itself, whether doctor, nurse, or pharm. Students have more time to review the medical chart more thoroughly than a harried experienced nurse.

Thanks for best answer & good luck to you! Report It

There is a nationwide shortage of nursing programs. Nursing is different from all other programs in a college. This is because it typically requires an RN with a minimum masters degree to teach the course. In addition, there must be hospitals willing to allow students in for clinical rotations. A RN with a masters degree does not earn much while teaching and many hospitals do not want students because of the liability.

This is the vicious circle causing a nursing shortage. Not because a lack of students wanting to go into nursing.

They ARE combatting the nursing shortage in LA by making the nursing programs dirt cheap
$500 for one year of school in a never-ending field is not expensive in the least.
I dont know about long beach in particular..but its very cheap to go to nursing school in la

You need to look around more. Talk to counselors.

The first responder gave some valid points. Additional points are, the schools of nursing have to maintain the quality level of students accepted and graduated. Also, the graduating students must be able to pass the NCLEX boards. In my class we had over 100 students drop out due to grades during the last 2 years of the nursing program. My wifes program lost over 50% also. If you expand the programs, you must still recruit students who can meet the requirements of the RN programs.

The greatest problem that nursing schools face is the lack of clinical sites for students to do their rotations. There are only so many hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics, and they can't have more than a dozen or so students on a unit on any given day. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done about this aspect of the problem.

You can't expand nursing programs if there is a lack of clinical sites.

They don't just let anyone into the schools they have requirements and a lot of students think they can just breeze through when it is actually very difficult . Then when you are finished with all the classes the State boards (NCLEX) is extremely hard. You have to be highly motivated to become a nurse nowadays. I graduated 2 years ago and half my class were kicked out or dropped out because its so hard. You can practically have no life while your in school. Some people aren't able to sacrifice that. You have Math competencies, clinical most are 12 hours and alot of my classmates got divorces,lost their kids,had nervous break downs because it is high stress. They have a standard and are not going to accept any less than that. We were required to have an A average,a lot of Pre-requisites, physicals, background checks, immunizations and health screens some people fell by the way side from those.