April 15, 2022

What a new law aimed at the nursing shortage means for colleges in Kentucky - Lexington Herald Leader

A new law will allow Kentucky nursing schools to enroll more students, one step toward addressing the statewide nursing shortage.

Senate Bill 10, which Gov. Andy Beshear signed into law last week, removes the enrollment limitation for college nursing programs, as long as 80% of students in the program from the past three years have passed the NCLEX, the nursing licensing exam. It also removes barriers for nurses who move to Kentucky, making it faster for them to begin practicing in state.

Last September, 65% of Kentucky’s hospitals were reporting critical staff shortages. The Kentucky National Guard was deployed to several hospitals in the state, including the UK hospital system.

In December, Beshear declared a state of emergency related to the nursing shortage.

“We need to be training more nurses,” Beshear said when he signed the bill into law. “We need to make sure that unnecessary bureaucracy is not getting in the way while at the same time, we ensure the quality standards that are so important.”

Gwen Moreland, chief nurse executive at UK HealthCare, said although the hospital’s turnover rate is lower than the national average, they have supplemented hospital staff with travel nurses and employees throughout the pandemic.

The hospital’s plans for expansion, including opening two additional floors at the Chandler Hospital Pavilion A, mean there is a potential for more clinical rotation positions.

“One (floor) will be opening this summer, so as we expand programs, that allows us other clinical sites for students to come and do their clinical rotations,” Moreland said.

A nursing shortage existed before the pandemic. But the pandemic has been difficult for nurses, including working extra shifts, working with COVID patients and personal struggles they may face outside of work, Moreland said, causing vacancies within UK HealthCare as people retire or leave nursing. Being able to enroll more students statewide means there will be a larger hiring pool in the future.

More nurses means hospitals can hopefully alleviate some of the pressure that staffing issues create, she said.

Janie Heath, dean of UK’s College of Nursing, said while she is thankful that nurses who work in higher education were consulted on Senate Bill 10, the law could have gone further. Without resources like funding and more faculty to support nursing programs in the state, it could be hard to increase enrollment, she said. Additionally, a nursing faculty shortage places limits on how many students can be enrolled.

“The situation comes down to resources,” Heath said. “We need faculty to teach. We’re an aging workforce.”

In the last five years, UK had an average pass rate of 98% for nursing students who take the NCLEX, Heath said, above the percentage required under the new law. UK already had a plan approved by the state Board of Nursing to increase their nursing enrollment over the next several years, Heath said.

However, Heath said she believes other measures should be taken into consideration before a school decides to open up their enrollment. Heath would have preferred if the law had required schools to meet other standards to raise enrollment, like the number of empty faculty positions and student retainment numbers, she said.

The number of faculty members in a nursing program is an important factor in how many students can be admitted, and the national nursing shortage means there are fewer credentialed nurses who can teach, Heath said.

The law is a start, but other issues need to be addressed before it will make an impact on the nursing shortage, Heath said.

“If we can get these things addressed, I think we’ll be in a much stronger place,” Heath said.



source: https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article260409772.html

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