Think of it as a positive prognosis for a region suffering from a shortage of nurses: Four colleges in the central San Joaquin Valley have added nursing programs.
There are complications, however.
Instructors are scarce. Nurses are reluctant to teach full time because they can earn far more doing hospital work. And some instructors who are willing to teach lack experience in the classroom.
Officials believe the Valley will benefit from the new programs, even though they won't start graduating students until 2010.
"We have young people, and second- and third-career people who see nursing as an option," said Michael Russler, chairman of the nursing department at California State University, Fresno. "As we create the new programs, we are creating new nurses."
Students in those programs know they'll be able to get jobs because of the shortage, but they have other motivations.
Sarah Barker of Reedley, who is in National University's new program, said a nurse offered her much-needed support when, at 19, she lost a child at birth.
"I want to do the same for other people at their time of need," said Barker, 28.
A Fresno State nursing report released in May 2007 said the shortage of nurses is approaching crisis levels in the Valley and that the region might be 20,000 nurses short by 2020.
Fresno City College, College of the Sequoias in Visalia and Fresno State have nursing programs but must turn away hundreds of students every semester. More than 900 students, for example, applied to City College's nursing program for the spring 2009 semester -- but only 156 were admitted.
Programs to train new registered nurses also have begun -- or soon will -- at West Hills College Lemoore, which started with 24 students in August; National, which started with 15 students in Fresno in November; and San Joaquin Valley College, scheduled to start classes for 36 in July at its Visalia campus. West Hills, a public community college, and San Joaquin, a private junior college, will offer two-year degrees. National, a private school, will offer a four-year degree. RNs can work with either kind of degree.
Fresno Pacific University, a private school affiliated with the Mennonite Brethren Church, will offer a bachelor's degree in nursing to RNs who have a two-year degree but want a four-year degree so they can advance in their jobs. Classes are scheduled to start in February in Fresno and Visalia with about 20 students each.
The nursing faculty shortage is a big reason why more students can't be taught, said Carolyn Drake, dean of health sciences at City College. There are more than enough students for all the programs, she said.
The bigger programs sometimes lose instructors -- for example, West Hills hired a City College instructor to direct its new program -- but officials put the best face on the inter-school competition.
"We're the best," said Drake, who added that City College extends its influence when its faculty go elsewhere.
Sharing faculty is one way colleges cope with the shortage, said Stephanie Robinson, director of City College's nursing department.
Fresno Pacific, for example, hired 26-year Fresno State nursing professor Mariamma Mathai to direct its program, and she is looking to hire nursing faculty from Fresno State and City College to teach part time. They would continue to teach at Fresno State and City College, she said.
Another Fresno State nursing professor, Janine Spencer, serves as director of San Joaquin Valley College's nursing program. source
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