Record Enrollment in UA College of Nursing to Counter Shortage

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Enrollment in The University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing hit an all-time high this semester – welcome news to a health care industry reeling in the midst of a national nursing shortage. The flood of students has led to creative ways of obtaining sufficient classroom and laboratory space.

Fall 2003 enrollment in the College is 791 students, an all-time high in the College’s 27-year history, according to UA records. The record enrollment was driven, in part, by 165 freshman students, representing a 135 percent increase from the freshman class of three years ago.

“People have now rediscovered nursing,” said Dr. Sara Barger, dean of UA’s Capstone College of Nursing.

More UA nursing faculty and currently enrolled students have become heavily involved in helping potential students rediscover the profession, said Steve Robinson, director of nursing student services at UA. New UA programs, such as Nightingale Day and the Joseph S. Bruno Nursing Academy, which give potential students insights into nursing, have been popular, Robinson said. “I’m confident that the more students find out about our program, then the more likely they are to come to the Capstone.”

Nursing enrollment increases can’t happen quickly enough for the health care industry. According to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report more than one million new and replacement nurses will be needed by 2010. According to another recent report, more than 30 states now face Registered Nurse shortages, and 44 states are expected to have shortages by 2020.

This year marks the second consecutive year UA’s freshman nursing class has seen a sharp increase. In fall 2002, 108 freshmen enrolled, up from the 77 who enrolled in 2001. Total enrollment had dipped as low as 360 students in the fall of 1987.

“The reality was people were not interested in nursing and now they are,” Barger said. “They are incredibly interested in nursing.”

Bountiful employment opportunities and accompanying salary jumps are likely contributors to that interest. The national average for starting salaries for college nursing graduates in 2002 was $37,803, a 3.3 percent increase from the previous year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. This increase came at a time when starting salaries from many other fields showed a slight decline.

The tremendous enrollment growth at UA has created challenges, Barger said. Students are eligible for promotion into the nursing curriculum after completing 66 hours of core classes, with a heavy science concentration. This fall, 61 students met the promotion criteria, but the biggest classroom in the College held only 51 students, and the largest lab could only accommodate seven hospital beds, Barger said.

A laboratory large enough to hold 25 beds was needed, and it needed to be in close proximity to the classroom as students are taught nursing techniques in class and then immediately move to the lab to practice them. “You can’t do that when the classroom is on one end of campus and the lab is on the other,” Barger said. “You really have only two choices, you can say, ‘it’s not our fault, we don’t have resources,’ or you can go out and do something innovative.”

With only two weeks left before the start of the fall semester, the College was continuing to grapple with the space limitation problem. Barger contacted Kim Ingram, associate commissioner of mental health, and brainstormed possible solutions. Ingram contacted Bryce Hospital administrators and located both classroom and laboratory space at the hospital, whose property joins UA property. Ingram also located 25 hospital beds that Northport’s S.D. Allen Nursing Home was willing to donate to the College’s lab.

“The support of the employees at Bryce Hospital has been unbelievable,” Barger said. Those employees cleaned and painted the space for the clinical practice laboratory, storage areas and faculty office areas and even assisted with moving the hospital beds and bedside tables donated by the nursing home and overbed tables donated by DCH Regional Medical Center.

“It’s a story of shared resources for the greater good, and the greater good is producing these nurses that Alabama so desperately needs,” Barger said.

The Capstone College of Nursing founded in 1976, graduates approximately 100 nurses a year from its baccalaureate program. Its graduate program for nurse case managers is one of the most innovative in the country. Partnerships with many of Alabama’s community colleges make obtaining a bachelor’s or master’s degree in nursing a realistic goal for registered nurses. With nearly 800 students and 28 faculty, the College supplies RNs and nurse case managers to many Alabama health care facilities and others throughout the United States. The College also runs a primary care clinic in rural Alabama to provide care for rural patients and rural learning experiences for students.