University of Iowa to Cut Nursing Admissions, Focus on Educating Teachers

By Emily Christensen, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

Dec. 5–CEDAR FALLS — A dearth of nursing educators has prompted the University of Iowa College of Nursing to drastically cut enrollment in the coming years.

The Iowa Board of Regents Monday approved a plan that would cut admissions to the university’s Bachelor of Science Nursing program from 150 students to 80 beginning this fall. Rita Frantz, dean of the college, said the move was necessary to address a national shortage of nursing educators.

“The School of Nursing cannot bring in new practitioners to educate because we don’t have the faculty,” she said. “The view is that if we do not take some very strategic moves to address the faculty shortage we will continue to escalate in the shortage of nurses.”

Nationally, the average age of nursing faculty is 54-years-old.

The resources freed up by reduction will then be focused on the school’s master’s and doctoral programs, where graduates can be available to teach nursing students and supervise clinical placements. So, while the schools BSN program will decrease enrollment, the school hopes to see new students taking advantage of growing enrollment in other areas. The college will increase the number of registered nurse students admitted to the baccalaureate program (RN-BSN) from 151 to 200. The Master in Nursing and Healthcare Practice Program (MNHP) will become a Master of Science in Nursing Program and will increase enrollment by one-third to 80 students per year.

University of Iowa President Sally Mason told The Courier’s editorial board Monday the move will help the nursing field more than expanding nursing student admissions, despite the growing need for nurses nationwide.

“Even though we have a nursing shortage, we have a more critical shortage of nursing faculty,” Mason said. “And who is in better position to train more educators than a school that is easily in the top five of nursing schools in the country.”

Though the university is making strides to shore up the nursing educator and practitioner shortage Mason said it is unlikely this problem will be solved in her lifetime. Similar shortages are also being seen in pharmacy schools, where those working in the field can often make more money than those teaching them the skills to do their job.

Mason said similar staffing problems are also plaguing other areas around campus. Though the shortage isn’t as serious as that in the nursing field, Mason said bulking up the university’s tenure track professors will be part of the development of the school’s new strategic plan. Mason said the university has lost, and not replaced, at least 100 tenure track faculty in the last decade, while the student population has grown to about 30,000.

“The University of Iowa in not alone in what happened over the last decade or more,” Mason said. “The student body has grown and our faculty has shrunk. That’s what you do when budgets get tight. It’s really easy when somebody leaves or retires not to replace them.”

Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1570 or emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.

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