Here is an 'answer' from TX to the above story: Nursing teacher shortage | News for Austin, Texas | KVUE.com | Local News
Experts in the medical profession say nursing is a "recession proof" career, but it's not a shortage of nursing students in Texas that has some sounding the alarm bell, it's a shortage of nursing teachers.
Educators at A.C.C. say there are two main reasons for the nursing teacher shortage. First, practicing nurses in Texas can make an average of $20,000 to $30,000 more per year as opposed to nurses who teach nursing. The second reason is that state law requires a ratio of 1-teacher to 10-students.
A spokesperson for the Texas Hospital Association says more than 8,000 qualified students were turned away from the state's nursing schools last year because there weren't enough qualified teachers to teach them.
"We do have insufficient faculty and that limits the enrollments that any program can accept," says Dr. Eileen Klein, the Executive Dean of Health and Sciences at A.C.C. Eastview Campus.
Klein says A.C.C. relies on funding from a number of the city's hospitals who pay for teacher's salaries. Some of the hospitals also provide the nursing teachers.
The Texas Hospital Association estimates the state has a current shortage of 22,000 nurses. The association estimates that number will soar to a shortage of 70,000 by 2020 if more isn't done to increase the number of nursing teachers.
"We will close beds if we don't have enough nurses so you will see that in hospitals across the state, we will import foreign nurses, we use overtime and we also use travelling nurses," says Jennifer Banda with the T.H.A.
Nursing advocates plan to approach Texas lawmakers this session for an additional 60-million dollars, money they hope will pay for more nursing teachers and in turn double the number of nurses in Texas by 2013.