What Can We Do To Solve The State's Nursing Shortage?
HOSPITALS SUPPORT NURSING PROGRAM EXPANSION
Through several major gifts from partnering hospitals, the Master’s Entry Into Nursing (MbEIN) program at UConn’s Stamford campus is dramatically expanding, a step expected to help ease the shortage of nurses in Fairfield County and across the state.
Stamford Hospital, Norwalk Hospital and Greenwich Hospital have each made recent contributions totaling more than $250,000 to support MbEIN. The program is designed for those with a bachelor’s degree in a non-nursing field, and allows students to become eligible to take the RN licensure exam after the successful completion of a calendar year of coursework.
This effort to attract non-nursing majors ideally fits UConn’s mission, believes Dean Anne Bavier (photo, center) of the School of Nursing, and is a recognition that the nursing field is changing with the advent of new technology and market opportunities.
“MbEIN is consistent with the history and heritage of UConn’s nursing program, building on a foundation of sciences and liberal arts,” she says. “The entire state benefits, because through MbEIN we are creating nursing leaders who are critical thinkers and are from a rich intellectual background that they can apply to nursing.”
Facing a projected statewide deficit of 11,000 nurses by the year 2010, several local hospitals in lower Fairfield County joined with UConn to offer space and financial support for the program.
The region’s hospitals, who may spend up to $50,000 recruiting and retaining a single nurse, must compete with higher salaries and flexible shifts offered in New York City, and see an advantage from MbEIN to both themselves and the entire region.
Dean Bavier believes that the market-based realities the hospitals face help to shape the focus of the school.
“Our hospital partners are critical to MbEIN because they understand the workplace needs. That knowledge allows us to direct our attention to preparing nurses who focus on what the patients and clients need the most: critical thinkers who bring nursing care to the bedside.”
