| Learning Objective #1: Identify two creative solutions to the nursing shortage and nursing education | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Identify how collaborative partnerships between service and education help with solutions to the nursing shortage |
The nursing shortage has impacted some areas of the USA in varying degrees. The San Joaquin Valley of California has been extremely hard hit so that it has only a little over 400 nurses per 100,000 population, the lowest in the country.
The California Community College System is a very large system whose purpose is to serve the community and keep the doors open to everyone who wishes an education. Nursing has been limited in the number of faculty allotted to the program despite the extreme need. Fresno City College long ago chose the lottery system for admittance in order to meet state regulations. As a result of this limitation the hospitals and school got together and formed contract education, known as Paradigm, to bypass the lottery. As a result since 1998 the program has almost quadrupled in size.
The same curriculum was delivered to both groups but the Paradigm had a more compressed time frame. There was a concern about the quality of nurse sponsored by the hospitals even though they met college requirements. Statistics were kept comparing the traditional students and the “Paradigm” contract education students. To date there appears to be no significant difference between the groups. In 2002 additional testing through ATI was added in each of the different subject areas. To date there is some difference but data gathering and analysis continues to be an on going process. Through a state grant additional students were added to the traditional group but again in a combined compressed format. That data collection in on going. In fact what we have is a large educational experiment in how to educate nurses in a safe sound method, who can pass the NCLEX, in the least possible time frame.
Back to Innovations in Nursing Education Continued
Back to 14th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
10-12 July 2003