Mason Works to Head Off Nursing Shortage

Qualified nurses are always in demand. In Northern Virginia alone, about 16,000 vacant nursing positions are expected by 2020. To help alleviate this shortage, Mason is working to train future nurse educators to fill the void created as more and more professors from the baby boomer generation retire.

“We [in the overall nursing community] are not keeping up with current demand for nursing faculty, and the projections for the future are overwhelming unless we begin a major cultural change in the way we provide advanced nursing education and the way that students enroll in our program,” says Shirley Travis, dean of Mason’s College of Health and Human Services. “The good news is that every crisis is also an opportunity to rethink what we are doing and make wise and important decisions for future direction.”

The School of Nursing is developing new curriculum plans, expected to be ready for the fall 2008 semester, for its graduate students. These plans will compress the time needed to complete a second degree by eliminating duplicate course content in the path from a bachelor’s degree to a doctorate in nursing. In addition, a special focus is being placed on programs for new graduates in clearly defined career paths so that they may obtain graduate degrees early in their careers.