| |
|
Join Us!
Click here to learn how you can be part of the solution!
|
|
Did you know…
In 2008, Texas nursing schools turned away 8,000 qualified applicants, due primarily to a shortage of qualified faculty willing to teach at prevailing salaries.
|
|
 Share on Facebook
UPDATE! (June 1) – State budget writers invested a total of $49.7 million in nursing education for 2010-2011 – a $35 million increase over the previous biennium. Funding earmarked for nursing education includes $14.7 million per year in the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s base budget, which will increase funding for nursing schools following their increased enrollments. In addition, $30 million per year in upfront funding will be available for nursing schools so that they can immediately increase enrollments for the fall 2009 semester. Another $5 million will go to The University of Texas at Arlington to establish a simulation lab.
The Texas Nursing Workforce Shortage Coalition had advocated for upfront funding to help immediately increase enrollments at Texas nursing schools to reduce the nursing shortage. “This is a significant increase in funding for nurse education. While it will not completely close the gap between supply and demand, this is the largest single investment the Legislature has made in nurse education to date,” noted the coalition chairman, Dan Stultz, M.D. |
More Funding for Nursing Education is Needed Now
Texas has a serious nursing shortage. Demand for full-time registered nurses in Texas in 2008 exceeds supply by 22,000. Without major increases in funding for nurse education, this gap will widen to 70,000 by 2020 as the state’s rapidly growing population ages and requires more acute care, and as older nurses retire or reduce the hours they work.
The Texas Nursing Workforce Shortage Coalition – a diverse partnership of health care organizations, business groups and education leaders working to address the nursing shortage in Texas – believes that the 2009 Texas Legislature should provide an additional $60 million in special-item funding to increase the annual production of RN graduates from 7,000 in 2007 to 13,000 in 2013, almost doubling the output.
|
|