Nursing school a step closer to reinstating undergrad degree
BY Wendy soderburg
Today Staff Writer
Taking the first step toward alleviating a nursing shortage in California, the UC Board of Regents voted Nov. 16 to adopt a 2006-07 budget proposal that includes funding for a UCLA School of Nursing initiative that would implement two new degree programs here: a bachelor of science degree in nursing and a master’s entry-level degree.
UCLA’s Academic Senate must first review the curricula of the new undergraduate and graduate nursing programs before they can be implemented. If all goes according to plan, however, new admissions to the programs will enroll in fall 2006, increasing the total number of nursing students at UCLA from the current 300 to 624 by 2010.
The B.S. degree in nursing is not totally new, having existed at UCLA until 1995, when campuswide budget cuts forced the school to suspend admissions to the program. It will be reinstated in fall 2006, along with the new Master’s Entry into Clinical Nursing program. Students in that program will already have a bachelor’s degree in another discipline, such as biology, psychology or art, and will complete two years of graduate study in nursing to prepare them to work as nurses at the bedside.
“The reason for our nursing crisis is unique to the state,” said Marie Cowan, dean of the School of Nursing. “People are interested in pursuing careers in nursing, but there are not enough education slots. Baccalaureate degree programs are currently relegated to the California State University system. The programs are impacted, and some have a three-year waiting list. UCLA will have the only undergraduate program in the UC system.”
The nursing situation in the state has been rather bleak. California currently ranks 49th out of 50 states in nurse-to-population ratio (the national average is 782 nurses per 100,000 people; California’s ratio is 544 nurses per 100,000). And as baby boomers age, California must confront not only a critical shortage of nurses to care for them, but also face an educational crisis when 40% of the state’s nursing faculty retire in 10 years. According to California’s Employment Development Department, the state will need 109,000 new nurses by 2010.
“We have never, ever produced the number of nurses that Californians need,” said Kay Baker, associate dean for students in the School of Nursing. “Our viewpoint is that the University of California should provide the best and the brightest for the health of the people of California.
“We’re thrilled that the university is going to do this, and I think it will make a huge difference for both the immediate management of health-care issues for patients and also for the long-range management of a more educated workforce.”
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