In the past I have spoken about the shortage of both nurses and faculty for schools of nursing. In fact, federal officials as well as nursing leaders agree that an acute nursing shortage will occur in 2010 when the Baby Boomer s begin to retire. Fewer young people are taking up the profession and those in nursing are moving to other professions such as business and law.
Rural areas tend to have community colleges rather than universities.
With a decrease in numbers of nurses and qualified faculty nationwide, rural areas are especially hard hit. The purpose of this column today is to discuss ways in which nurses can prepare for a career in nursing education for community colleges in their own area. A number of colleges and universities have tailored their nursing programs for students at a distance. More recently I have seen total graduate nursing programs provided via the Web. Students graduate from programs where they have never seen the campus.