Low Pay Hurting PCC Nursing Faculty
By Eric Swedlund, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
Aug. 9–Pima Community College has nearly doubled enrollment in its nursing programs over the past three years without an increase in full-time faculty and is facing a teacher shortage exacerbated by uncompetitive salaries.
The college is in danger of being placed on probation by the Arizona State Board of Nursing, which rates the faculty shortage as a deficiency in its latest accreditation status report. Pima has until May 2008 to correct the problem or demonstrate substantial progress.
“The quality of the program and the quality of the graduates is not going to stay unless there’s more of an infusion of faculty,” said Pam Randolph, the nursing-board education consultant who conducted the February visit that found dedicated but overworked faculty.
The college faces a “critical shortage” in nursing faculty, said Louis Albert, president of Pima’s West Campus. More than one-third of the college’s full-time regular nursing-faculty positions are unfilled, and the faculty salaries lag behind other Arizona colleges’ and what the nurses can command elsewhere in the health-care industry.
Pima has 14 full-time regular faculty members with master’s degrees in nursing, with eight positions unfilled. Overall, the nursing programs have 60 total faculty members, relying heavily on adjuncts.
Randolph said Gateway Community College in Phoenix is comparable in student enrollment and has 33 full-time faculty, paying at least $10,000 per year more than Pima.
PCC offers new full-time nursing-faculty members starting salaries of up to $50,000 for a nine-month contract, barely ahead what the college’s two-year nursing graduates make at local hospitals.
Other Arizona community colleges have incentives to attract nursing faculty, including stipends and salary schedules that either separate nurses from the rest of the faculty or place them higher on the scale. Average starting nine-month salaries at Central Arizona College, Arizona Western College, Coconino Community College and the Maricopa Community Colleges is nearly $60,000.
At hospitals, experienced RNs can easily make $80,000 a year working three 12-hour shifts a week, plus hospitals offer an array of incentives, including bonuses, student loan repayment and scholarships.
“We have a responsibility as a community college to provide a work force for our community, and probably in no place is the demand more serious than for registered nurses and other nursing personnel,” Albert said.
Recruiting has stalled for the last five years, stifled by small applicant pools and uncompetitive pay. In the last five years, the college has hired six nursing-faculty members out of 38 applicants. Albert said the college must offer financial incentives to increase the size of the nursing faculty in proportion to enrollment.
Pima’s governing board Wednesday night instructed the administration to meet with representatives of the Pima Community College Educational Association and bring forward recommendations on improving nursing faculty salaries by the September meeting.
–Contact reporter Eric Swedlund at 573-4115 or at eswedlund@azstarnet.com.
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