In Focus

The first time Valerie (Oreana ’98) Massie experienced the rush of life in an emergency room, she knew she had found her calling. As a freshman at Pasadena City College, Massie considered a career as a physical therapist, but an internship at a hospital opened her eyes to nursing as a career choice, leading her to transfer to Azusa Pacific University.

“APU’s School of Nursing offered me a great program,” said Massie. “This challenging program prepared me for life as a professional nurse.” Thirteen years after enrolling at APU, Massie enters her 10th year as a registered nurse (RN) at UCLA Medical Center.

Though Massie’s story may seem typical, public health officials warn that it is not typical enough. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a nursing shortfall sweeps across the U.S., one expected to worsen in the coming years. Even more alarming, according to a 2007 study by the California Healthcare Association (CHA), California ranks 49th in the nation with regard to the number of registered nurses per capita, with 585 registered nurses per 100,000 population. “This real shortage is projected to continue until 2020,” said Aja Tulleners Lesh, Ph.D., RN, dean of the School of Nursing. “It is particularly acute in California.”

APU’s School of Nursing is confronting this looming crisis by undertaking multiple initiatives. The Early Entry into Nursing and Advanced Practice (EENAP) Program provides graduate-level nursing education for anyone who has a bachelor’s or advanced degree in other disciplines. It recently benefited from a $500,000 grant to APU from Kaiser Permanente to support students enrolled in APU’s San Diego Regional Center nursing program.

According to Lesh, in addition to providing funding for tuition stipends and loan forgiveness for nursing students, the Kaiser Permanente relationship allows students to receive mentoring from Kaiser Permanente staff, as well as placement in Kaiser Permanente’s San Diego facility after graduation. “The support from Kaiser Permanente will reap many dividends for our students,” said Lesh. “We’re very pleased that they recognize the quality of our students and want to support them further.”

As another method for combating the nursing shortfall, the School of Nursing launched the Second Careers and Nursing (S.C.A.N.) Program, which allows students who already have a bachelor’s degree in another field of study to obtain an additional RN degree. By focusing solely on nursing courses, students earn a nursing degree in three semesters. Like the EENAP Program, the SCAN Program also received support from Kaiser Permanente. “The second degree candidates have demonstrated that they are committed to the nursing profession,” said Judy Husted, M.S., RN, executive director of patient care services, operations, Southern California Kaiser Foundation Hospital. “This is one of the many innovative initiatives we have implemented to address the California nursing shortage.”

The School of Nursing, along with APU’s Center for Adult and Professional Studies (CAPS), recently developed the Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN) Online Program. This program offers online courses that allow students who have graduated from a community college program to obtain a bachelor’s degree.

According to Renee Pozza, Ph.D., associate dean of the School of Nursing, the RN to BSN Program remains particularly important because hospitals must often fill their nursing shortfall by relying more frequently on nurses who have received a two-year associate RN degree from a community college. “Studies repeatedly show that patients with baccalaureate-prepared nurses fare much better than those with a less well-trained nurse,” Pozza said. “The RN to BSN Program allows professional nurses to continue their education in order to receive this training.”

In many cases, the shortage of qualified nurses stems from a similar shortage of nursing faculty – those equipped to prepare nursing graduates. According to a 2006 report by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, U.S. nursing schools turned away 42,866 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2006 due to insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors, and budget constraints. Seventy-one percent of schools responding to the 2006 survey noted faculty shortages as a factor for not accepting qualified applicants into entry-level nursing programs.

Responding to this need for more nursing faculty, the School of Nursing launched a Ph.D. in Nursing Program in 2004. According to Lesh, the three-year Ph.D. program graduates its first class in 2008. Additionally, APU recently received funding to initiate a post-master’s degree Education Certificate Program designed specifically to train faculty members and researchers.

Each of these initiatives exist, according to Lesh, not only as a means to combat the state and national nursing shortfall, but also as a way to continue upholding APU’s commitment to its Four Cornerstones of Christ, Scholarship, Community, and Service. “All of our programs involve a major component of faith integration,” said Lesh. “There are numerous issues we face in healthcare that compel and challenge our students. When challenged by these profound issues, it is crucial that our graduates be prepared with a spiritual foundation. And our students have seen a real demand for nurses with this worldview and commitment as they enter the workforce after graduation.”

Chris Martin ’98 is a freelance writer living in Washington, DC. cm1977@gmail.com