Becker's Hospital Review

86 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Nursing schools reject thousands amid shortage By Megan Knowles D espite the nationwide nursing short- age, colleges across the U.S. are turn- ing away qualified applicants as they struggle to hire teachers for nursing programs and expand class sizes, CNNMoney reports. "It's really a catch 22 situation," said Robert Rosseter, spokesperson for the American As- sociation of Colleges of Nursing. "ere's tre- mendous demand from hospitals and clinics to hire more nurses," he said, noting there is also significant demand from students who want to pursue nursing, "but schools are tapped out." e Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the U.S. nursing field will have more than 1 million vacancies by 2022, leaving hospitals to imple- ment strategies to recruit and retain nurses. Nursing schools rejected over 56,000 quali- fied applicants from undergraduate nursing programs in 2017. "Some of these applicants graduated high school top of their class with a 3.5 GPA or higher," Mr. Rosseter said. "But the competition to get into a nursing school right now is so intense." From community colleges to undergraduate and graduate schools, nursing programs are turning away prospective students due to a lack of openings. For example, the University of Maryland School of Nursing in Baltimore admits new students in the undergraduate program twice annually, said Jane Kirschling, PhD, RN, dean of the School of Nursing. "We're averaging 200 applications each time for 55 slots," she said. "So we're turning away one student for every student we accept." However, Dr. Kirschling added increasing school class size to accommodate more stu- dents is challenging and oen impractical. Mr. Rosseter agreed, adding how class size presents a significant challenge for nursing schools. "ere's not enough available clinical space to train students," he said. Additionally, higher salaries for working nurses is one factor contributing to why nursing schools struggle to hire more qual- ified teachers. "e annual national faculty vacancy rate in nursing programs is over 7 percent. at's pretty high," Mr. Rosseter said. "It's about two teachers per nursing school or a shortage of 1,565 teachers." Despite these challenges, nursing programs across the country are developing strategies to accommodate more students. "We're expanding our program to new cam- puses, we're looking at new models of part- nering with hospitals to allow [their] nursing staff to [be able] to teach," said Tara Hulsey, PhD, RN, dean of West Virginia University's School of Nursing in Morgantown. Additionally, Flint, Mich.-based Mott Com- munity College teamed up with Ann Ar- bor-based University of Michigan's accelerat- ed 16-month undergraduate program, which is designed for veterans with medical experi- ence who want to pursue a nursing career. "ese bridge programs could really help with the [nursing] shortage," said Rebecca Myszenski, dean of the division of Health Sciences at Mott Community College. "You have to address the nursing shortage by thinking out of the box." n Healthcare mega-mergers push primary care clinics 'closer to extinction': 5 takeaways By Morgan Haefner P rimary care physicians saw office visits fall 18 percent from 2012 to 2016, according to Health Care Cost In- stitute data, despite an incline in specialist visits. The New York Times reports new threats from retailer and insur- er mega-mergers are pushing primary care clinics "closer to extinction." Here are five takeaways from the report. 1. There are roughly 12,000 retail clinics and urgent care centers in the U.S., according to Merchant Medicine data cited by the NYT. Patients are choosing these clinics for sim- ple health needs more often than before, where a nurse practitioner or physician assistant can offer cheaper care than may be administered in a physician's office. 2. These types of clinics stand to become even more pop- ular as retail giants Walmart and CVS Health explore merg- ers or partnerships with Humana and Aetna, respectively. Troyen Brennan, MD, CMO for CVS Health, told the pub- lication CVS Health is "evolving the retail clinic concept. It requires new and different work by the nurse practitioner," such as monitoring chronic health conditions rather than simply offering a flu shot. 3. Jeffrey Le Benger, MD, CEO of Summit Medical Group in Berkeley Heights, N.J., told the publication, "There is huge consolidation in the market right now. Everyone is fighting for the primary care patient." 4. This looming pressure comes as the patient-physician relationship continues to undergo fundamental changes. Patients are expecting more on-demand care and services they can access 24/7 instead of during business hours. 5. However, some physicians continue to stress the impor- tance of one-on-one care sustained over multiple years, rather than a stop-and-go approach where medical history isn't as readily available. Shawn Purifoy, MD, a family med- icine physician in Malvern, Ark., told the NYT long-lasting patient-physician relationships aren't "something I can do in a minute. You're never going to get that at a MedExpress [UnitedHealth Group urgent care center]." n

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