Budget cuts could mean fewer students in some nursing programs statewide, raising concern among nursing educators, advocates and hospitals that a projected shortage of nurses in Tennessee could worsen.
Faced with a mandate to cut its budget by 20 percent and with the loss of two major grants, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville's College of Nursing recently said it might have to admit 50 percent fewer undergraduates — or only 48 candidates — this fall.
Programs at other state colleges and universities, meanwhile, are cutting back on purchases of equipment and office supplies among ways to meet the mandate, which is related to a decline in state revenues because of the nation's economic downturn.
Such moves concern advocates, including Ann Duncan, executive director of the Tennessee Center for Nursing, which expects more need for nurses to care for an aging and more chronically ill population.
Although the latest available figures show nursing vacancies at hospitals statewide declined slightly to 5.7 percent or 1,517.5 openings in 2006, the center's longer-term projection is for a statewide shortage of 35,300 nurses working across all health-care industry settings by 2020.
Wrong message may be sent
"Unless we're able to continue to produce the number of nurses at the same degree that demand by the employers increases, the shortage is going to worsen," said Bill Jolley, vice president of the Tennessee Hospital Association, a trade group.
Peter I. Buerhaus, a Vanderbilt University nursing professor who studies health-care work-force issues, understands budget challenges faced by the state. But he said the cuts and a temporary easing of the nursing shortage — as nurses who left the work force return because of the economic downturn — send the wrong message to prospective students and employers.
Candidates for nursing degrees could pursue other careers, if they thought job prospects weren't as bright, while hospitals might relax their efforts to help address the long-term shortage, he said.
"It's like the old problem with a fall in oil and gas prices," Buerhaus said. "It lessens the pressure to achieve the long-run goal of energy independence, but the problem is still there."
He doubts that private schools, which face their own budget and faculty issues, can absorb students affected by cuts at state schools.
The enrollment cuts at UT-Knoxville will be necessary, if $450,000 isn't raised from outside sources by this spring to make up for cuts in state funding and the loss of grants, said Gary Ramsey, chair of the undergraduate nursing program.
"Higher education budgets are never plentiful, but this certainly is the worst I've seen," said Ramsey, whose program graduates 100 nurses a year. "It's the overall economy, not just us in higher education being impacted. It's hitting everybody."
Getahn Ward covers the business of health care. He can be reached at 615-726-5968 or at gward@tennessean.com.
