Nursing teacher shortage subject of conference

ATLANTA - If nursing schools don&#39;t have the faculty, they can&#39;t mold new nurses. <br> <br> That was the theme of a conference on nursing education Monday. About 125 educators met to discuss a growing shortage of faculty in nursing schools in the Southeast. <br> <br> ``You can have tons of interested students who apply to your program. If you don&#39;t have the faculty, you can&#39;t educate them,&#39;&#39; said Linda Hodges, president of the Council on Collegiate Nursing, a part of the Southern Regional Education Board, which sponsored the conference. <br> <br> The U.S. Labor Department estimates that the country will need another 1 million nurses in eight years to staff hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and home health care services. <br> <br> Over the next four years, schools in the Southeast expect to lose 18 percent of their nursing faculty to retirement, according to an SREB survey. In Georgia, almost one fourth of nursing school faculty members will have retired or resigned by 2006. <br> <br> Educators at the conference discussed the problems and possible solutions. <br> <br> Arkansas has come up with financial aid for students who want to pursue advanced degrees in nursing in order to teach, said Hodges, who is dean of nursing at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. <br> <br> She said loans of up to $20,000 are available for full-time students, and $10,000 for part-time students, who enter graduates programs. <br> <br> ``After that was enacted, enrollment in our doctoral programs doubled,&#39;&#39; Hodges said. <br> <br> Bills before a congressional conference committee would authorize $10 million a year over two years for a program to allow nursing graduate students to repay loans by teacher rather than practicing their skills. <br> <br> In Georgia, the University System has requested up to $5 million in fiscal 2003 to include health professions in its Intellectual Capital Partnership Program, which provides forgivable loans to students who agree to work in a specific profession for at least four years. <br> <br> ``We need desperately for government to invest in these initiatives,&#39;&#39; said Carolyn Williams, dean of nursing at the University of Kentucky. <br> <br> ``Many people in the doctoral program are people who have families to support. They really can&#39;t manage with a small stipend,&#39;&#39; Williams said.

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