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Officials look to state schools to solve nursing shortage
Aug 16, 12:09 PM
New Britain Herald
By SCOTT WHIPPLE, HERALD STAFF
NEW BRITAIN – U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District, was joined Friday by state education leaders and chairwoman of the state Senate Committee on Public Health at Central Connecticut State University to discuss ways to address the state’s nursing shortage.
Murphy said he is working to secure funds for the Connecticut State University System’s nursing program to help end the shortage.
According to the Connecticut League for Nursing, Connecticut ranked 49th out of 50 states in producing nurses in 2005. That year, Connecticut faced a 20 percent shortage of RNs; by 2010 this shortage is expected to climb to 33 percent, creating a negative impact on health care in Connecticut and on the safety of its residents.
“Our health-care system is broken,” Murphy said. “Addressing the nursing shortage crisis is a step we must take to improve quality and access to health care across the country. In Connecticut, we need more nurses. By working with our own statewide university system, we can make a difference.”
The CSUS asked Murphy to seek funding through the annual congressional appropriations process for a system-wide project to address Connecticut’s nursing shortage and nursing faculty shortages at state schools. Murphy recently secured $200,000 for CSUS in an appropriations bill, which was approved by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. If approved by Congress and signed into law by the President, this funding will be used as seed money to increase capacity at all four CSUS universities (Central, Western, Southern, and Eastern Connecticut State Universities) to educate and graduate nursing students, provide graduate training opportunities, and for scholarships and equipment.
The CSUS has graduated the most nurses with bachelor’s degrees in the state during the past five years and is a critical pipeline feeding the state’s severe nursing workforce shortage. Since 86 percent of CSUS graduates remain in Connecticut after graduation, Murphy and others believe such funding is an investment in the state.
Mitch Sakofs, dean of CCSU’s School of Education and Professional Studies, thanked Murphy for his efforts to bring funding to support nursing programs.
“This excellent investment in education could help us meet one of the state’s most critical workforce shortages,” Sakofs said.
Mary Jane Williams called support for public higher education “essential to bring the brightest and the best into the Connecticut State University System.” Williams is chairwoman of government relations, Connecticut Nurses Association; chair of the Department of Nursing, University of Hartford; and professor emeritus, Central Connecticut State University. She said baccalaureate education is necessary for the provision of safe, high quality patient care.
“Research demonstrates a correlation between level of education and increased mortality and morbidity,” she said. “We need increased capacity in baccalaureate programs so we can begin to address the growing provider crisis in health care.”
“RNs provide a vital link between the doctors who diagnose and prescribe treatment for patients and those who need that level of hands-on care, but staff shortages prompt older nurses to retire earlier and there simply aren’t enough nurses in school to replace them,” said state Sen. Mary Ann Hadley, D-4th District, Senate chairwoman of the legislature’s Public Health Committee. “The funding Representative Murphy describes would address this unsustainable squeeze by increasing CSU’s capacity to educate nursing students and providing financial assistance they need to complete their education and training.”
Linda Wagner, associate professor and new chair of CCSU’s nursing department, said her department has worked hard to design a curriculum that will prepare professional nurses “to practice in an environment with changing demographics and ongoing advancements in science and technology.”
