Lots of Rejections Despite Demand

College Majors Nursing Major
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<p>Posted in various sources today:</p>

<p>"WASHINGTON – The American Association of Colleges of Nursing says enrollment in entry-level baccalaureate nursing programs increased by 3.5 percent from 2008 to 2009, despite the fact that almost 40,000 qualified nursing applicants were turned away this year.</p>

<p>Though interest in nursing careers remains strong, many seeking to enter the profession can't be accommodated in nursing programs due to faculty and resource constraints, said the AACN. According to a recent survey conducted by the organization, 39,423 qualified applications were turned away from 550 entry-level baccalaureate nursing programs in 2009.</p>

<p>This is comparable to the numbers of students turned away in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, which ranged from 36,400 to 41,385. The AACN expects this number to increase when final data from 2009 is available in March 2010.</p>

<p>Based on data received from 318 schools of nursing, qualified nursing students are being rejected due to a shortage of faculty (60.7 percent) and an insufficient number of clinical placement sites (61 percent). Given last year's cuts in state funding to nursing schools, the number of schools reporting budget cuts or insufficient budget more than doubled from 14.8 percent in 2008 to 31.1 percent in 2009......"</p>

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<p>Thanks 1sokkermom. Not good news, but definitely interesting and worth reading.</p>

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<p>Same situation from over 25 years ago…nothing changes. I don’t know why they do it for nursing, but for med school - they do it to keep wages inflated.</p>

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<p>“Demand” right now has been scaled back due to the recent economic downturn, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for new grads to find jobs. So with all the hiring freezes now, demand is low. </p>

<p>The real spike in demand will likely be, in my opinion, in about 4-5 years, when the economy begins to pick up again and nurses who went back to work due to sour economic conditions decide to go part time or decide to retire.</p>

<p>Any thoughts?</p>

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<p>We’ll have to see where we are with the socialized medicine experiment at that point.</p>