Northern Arizona University is expanding its Bachelor of Science nursing program in Tucson to accept more students.

Arizona has a growing health care workforce shortage, which the university said is a driving force behind the expansion.

The need for nurses is expected to grow by about 15 percent by 2026, according to Dr. Pamela Stetina, director of nursing at NAU.

“We are looking at a potential nursing shortage, and the RN workforce — the registered nurse workforce — is expected to grow about 15 percent, and that was from 2016 to 2026,” Stetina said. “There is a need for nurses. That in and of itself will help Arizona. I think that nurses are paid relatively well, and I think there are always jobs for nurses.”

The need for nurses is already growing by about 12 percent a year, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. That rate for other professions is just 5 percent.

“With more than 2,150 pre-nursing and nursing students pursuing a variety of nursing programs at NAU in a variety of locations or online, NAU is proud to address the health care workforce today and provide opportunities for our students to enter a high demand career with growing options,” said NAU President Rita Cheng.

Starting with the winter 2020 semester, the Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN) program will accept an additional 20 students per year. NAU said it expects to graduate 200 BSN degrees per year by 2023.

“There were a couple of things that led to wanting to expand,” Stetina said. “I think the biggest one was that we were getting phone calls from students asking, because we have a lot of applications, so we aren’t always able to meet that need.”

She said even community college nursing programs in Arizona have had to turn students away because there are not enough spots.

NAU currently has BSN programs in Flagstaff, Tucson, Yuma and Fort Defiance, graduating an average of 180 new pre-licensure BSN graduates a year.

Stetina said the program will likely continue to expand to the best of its ability: “I’m not thinking we are going to expand by 500 students, but if we can continue to expand on a smaller scale, then yes.”

She said the university is also hoping to expand the nursing program at its to include in-person courses, in addition to the existing online programs.

In addition to the expanded class size, the university will also offer a new program for individuals with bachelor of science degrees in non-nursing fields that lets them earn a “master’s of entry to the profession of nursing,” also known as an MEPN, so they can enter the nursing workforce with a master’s degree. That program starts in fall 2021 in Tucson.

Another new program is the Clinical Nursing Specialist Prescriptive Authority Course Bundle, which authorizes clinical nurse specialists in Arizona to write prescriptions in a limited form.

“For example, if a clinical nurse specialist is working in a hospital setting, then perhaps if they can do some limited prescriptive authority, they can get the patients sent home earlier,” Stetina said.

The program is awaiting legislative approval, which is anticipated to happen in the spring. Stetina said the program is geared toward currently-practicing clinical nurse specialists who want to refresh their training as well as obtain prescriptive authority with just a few extra classes.

NAU has in-person and online RN-BSN programs and accepts 90 transfer credits from community colleges, making degree completion accessible to more students at an affordable price. NAU also offers a Concurrent Enrollment Program that lets students take community college classes at the same time and graduate with both associate and bachelor’s degrees.

“I always like to put in my plug for our RN-to-BSN and our concurrent enrollment programs,” Stetina said. “Those are programs that currently exist that we could grow as far as the number of students that would be taking those programs.”

The RN-BSN program is offered in a “Personalized Language” format for students who need competency-based learning, allowing students to progress at their own pace.

Header photo courtesy of Northern Arizona University.

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The Arizona Health Care Association (AHCA) is working to grow the long-term caregiver workforce.

AHCA launched a website that connects people interested in long-term care careers with educational resources and professionals in the field.

“Workforce is a major focus for us this year,” Krysten Dobson, AHCA director of member services, said. “The need for caregivers in long-term care is essential to make sure the quality of care for our residences [is] maintain[ed].”

According to Dobson, the need for long-term caregivers is important because of the influx of Baby Boomers beginning to seek long-term care.

In fact, the American Health Care Association predicts the population of those aged 75 and older will more than triple by 2040.

“Increases in health care demands will be seen throughout the health care industry, with the greatest impacts anticipated in hospitals, skilled nursing, assisted living, and residential care facilities,” the American Health Care Association reports.

Dobson, who manages the website for the association, said the goal is to bring awareness to these career paths and that can meet the growing needs.

“This website sheds a positive light on career paths within long-term care, which are often overlooked,” Dobson said. “When you think of nursing, you often think of emergency rooms and hospitals and long-term care often gets left out. I think having these resources in front of you and spreading the word that there are opportunities in long-term care is important.”

Users can browse the site to find out more about careers in long-term care fields such as nursing, social services, and rehabilitation services. The information on the website includes job descriptions, typical salary, and education requirements, as well as provides connections within the field.

AHCA created the site with help from the Indiana Health Care Association that launched a similar site a couple of years ago.

Sites like AHCA’s could help the physician and nurse shortages that Arizona is facing.

To see the site, click.

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