It's a start: Finding a cure for the nursing shortage | MyDesert.com | The Desert Sun

The baby coos and breathes contently in its hospital bed.

But with a click of the mouse, the simulator also screams and cries or mimics a wide range of real-life scenarios for nursing students to safely practice everything from administering medication to delivering a baby.

The $60,000 baby simulator is part of the new three-member simulator family — a high-tech component of an effort at California State University, San Bernardino's Palm Desert campus to address the nursing shortage in the Coachella Valley.

With a 2,500 health-care-worker shortage projected in the next five years in the Coachella Valley, the Palm Desert campus is poised to help fill the gap in the nursing field and other crucial economic sectors, educators and community leaders say.

“We have a nursing shortage in the valley,” said Mary Ann McLaughlin, administrative director of patient care services at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. “We need various types of health-care providers. We look at this as a real boon. People don't have to go outside the valley.”

The university recently completed construction on its Palm Desert Health Science building and began offering a bachelor of science nursing degree last year. Four years ago, CSUSB's campus began offering a registered nurse-to-bachelor's degree in conjunction with College of the Desert.

Health -care officials point to these reasons for the state's nursing shortage:

Cost: A nursing degree is about twice as much as a typical degree.

Clinicals: All registered nurses must complete 350-plus clinical hours, which depend on the capacity at local hospitals to take on students.

Space: Most of the state's health care programs are at capacity and turn students away.

Teachers: Educator salaries are not keeping pace; nurses earn more money.

In the 2005-06 school year, the state had 7,500 new nursing graduates.
The Palm Desert nursing program has graduated about 100 students. Officials expect the number of graduates to double each year with the new degree program.

The degree at Palm Desert allows students to take coursework at College of the Desert and transfer for a four-year degree.

But will that be enough to meet the growing need?

The graying of health-care professionals means the shortage could intensify as nurses retire. The average age of the state's nurses is now 47.

With an average of 50 students graduating a year in both programs, it's hardly enough to quell the need for more than 2,500 health-care professionals in the next couple of years.

“We're still not getting close,” Jandt said.

But it is a start, and the joint efforts between the CSUSB extension campus in Palm Desert and College of the Desert are seen by some as key to growing the valley economy.

A longtime valley developer who helped spearhead the public-private partnership between the two schools more than 20 years ago said this sort of collaboration is critical to serving the wider educational needs of the growing Coachella Valley.

“It's probably the biggest deal that the valley can have,” **** Oliphant said of the Cal State campus.

“The economic development side is critical because if we're going to continue to grow in the Coachella Valley, we're going to have to grow with education.”

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