Lack of Faculty and Classroom Space Factors Behind Lack of Nurses in Wisconsin

Tuesday, October 18th, 2022 -- 2:01 PM

(By Leah Treidler, Wisconsin Public Radio) As the demand for nurses grows across Wisconsin, nursing education programs are struggling to churn out enough graduates, but not for lack of applicants.

Accrding to Leah Treidler with Wisconsin Public Radio, instead, schools are facing dwindling numbers of faculty and limited classroom space, forcing them to turn away prospective students.

According to the 2022 Wisconsin Hospital Association report, the pandemic exacerbated a growing shortage of nurses. In 2016, about 6 percent of registered nurse positions and around 9 percent of certified nursing assistant positions were vacant. Preliminary data estimates that in 2021, roughly 11 percent of RN positions and 17 percent of CNA positions were unfilled.

"There's just no way we're ever going to really get out of the shortage. Most of the nursing programs in the state, including (Edgewood College), have increased their enrollment as much as they can. But without faculty and sites and classrooms, we're really limited on how much we can admit," said Margaret Noreuil, the dean of Edgewood College's school of nursing in Madison.

Around 3,000 Wisconsin nurses join the workforce each year, and at that rate, the state is projected to be short almost 20,000 registered nurses by 2035. Each year, Edgewood College's undergraduate nursing program receives about 200 applications for only 90 spots, Noreuil said, forcing them to turn away more than half of the prospective students.

Across the country, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, nursing schools turned away 80,407 qualified applicants in 2019. Part of the problem is there aren't enough qualified faculty members to teach at nursing programs, Noreuil said. According to a 2019 AACN survey, there were 1,637 unfilled faculty positions across 892 nursing schools in the U.S.

"What we're seeing now is a dual problem that there's an increasing need for nurses in practice. Simultaneously, it's hard to ramp up availability for spots for nurses coming into the profession," said Jill Guttormson, the dean of Marquette University's College of Nursing.

One reason, she said, is education. While nurses need an associate's or bachelor's degree to practice, Guttormson said, nursing educators need at least a master's degree.

"That's typically an additional two to three years on top of the four years of the bachelor's degree," she said. "So it's additional education, which comes with additional costs." Despite the added education and student loans, she said, nurse educators tend to make less money than practicing nurses.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nursing instructors and teachers in Wisconsin make an average of $78,850 per year, whereas nurse practitioners earn $116,990 on average. And now, the shortage of nurse educators is set to get worse, Guttormson said.

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