Published: June 01, 2008 11:08 am      

EDUCATION: College addresses nursing shortage

Niagara County Community College and Mount St. Mary’s Hospital have forged a partnership that should enhance instruction for nursing students and help tackle nursing shortage problems.

The agreement will allow registered nurses at Mount St. Mary’s to maintain their full-time status pay with benefits at the hospital while still being able to teach on-site two days a week. The college will reimburse the hospital for the teaching time afterward.

“We have the benefit of them teaching our students in a clinical setting and they have the benefit of being able to teach while keeping their full-time job,” said Kay Collard, chair of the nursing program at NCCC.

Without such agreements, the college is left competing with other agencies for qualified nurses. But with a shortage of registered nurses projected to reach more than 20,000 by 2015, according to the state Education Department, working together is looking like the best option, even as competition becomes more fierce.

“One of the benefits of this is hopefully we can expose the students to our health care facility,” said Fred Caso, spokesman for Mount St. Mary’s. “We can show them the way we take care of our patients and hopefully they’ll move into the profession and possibly stay here.”

Mount St. Mary’s, like many hospitals, is now offering signing bonuses to registered nurses.

Collard feels the pressure, too. Interest in the nursing program at NCCC is swelling to the point where there’s already a waiting list for the fall 2009 semester.

A 2007 report by the state Nurses Association indicates despite increased enrollment in college programs, it still isn’t enough to meet estimated future demands.

NCCC is doing its part though. From 47 nursing graduates in May 2001, total enrollment has steadily boomed to reach a total enrollment of 518 at the start of this school year.

To maintain the program’s caliber, Collard said she needs a steady staff of registered nurses.

“The hospitals want us to graduate nurses, but I can only graduate nurses if I have enough faculty to teach them,” she said. “And I don’t want just any faculty, I want highly qualified clinical faculty and those are the nurses that are working in the hospitals.”

Collard hopes this partnership with Mount St. Mary’s can take off so she can work out similar deals with Erie County Medical Center and Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

“This is very important. It gets exceptional clinical faculty in that role as instructors,” Collard said. “We have an excellent program here and I think this will enhance it.”