Commonwealth as a nursing education hub

First of two parts

By ALDWIN R. FAJARDO
CORRESPONDENT

SAN FRANCISCO—As part of the CNMI government’s overall efforts to make the Commonwealth a hub for higher learning in the Western Pacific Region, Northern Marianas College officials met with officials of a California-based healthcare corporation, which partners with the NMC in putting together an accelerated nursing program under the Global Education Strategic Initiatives.

NMC president Tony Deleon Guerrero and finance director Raaj Kurapati toured two of the about 50 skilled nursing facilities of Pleasant Care Corp. in California, a possible employer for nurses that will be produced under the GESI nursing program.

Deleon Guerrero also met with Willis Management, Inc. president Sedy Demesa in San Francisco where they discussed GESI’s accelerated nursing program, which will target international students from mostly Asian countries including South Korea, China, Japan, and the Philippines.

NMC and Willis Management have joined forces to “recruit, educate, graduate and assimilate” individuals into the nursing profession, said Demesa, noting the acute shortage of nurses in America—a situation expected to fan towards the next 20 years.

Deleon Guerrero, meanwhile, said the NMC is shifting its gear to respond to the needs of the times, as the college hopes to help address the nursing shortage through the GESI while diversifying the higher learning institution’s student base, thereby, fortifying its fiscal standing.

An updated report of the national sample survey of registered nurses shows that, although the U.S. population increased by 14 percent in the last two years, the rate of nurses entering the workforce during the same period was just 4 percent, which pales in comparison to 16 percent in the period covering 1992-1996.

The same survey noted that nearly 18 percent of the nearly 2.7 million nurses in America are not actively practicing the profession.

Other studies indicate higher demand for nurses in the coming years, with the projected available positions for Registered Nurses expected to reach 125,000 in 2005; then up to 213,500 in 2010. The figure is projected to rise to 381,250 in 2015; and reach an all-time high of 434,000 in 2010.

The shortage is compounded by the decline in the number of new RN graduates in the second half of the 1990s, resulting in 26 percent fewer nurses in 2000 than in 1995, according to the Department of Health and Human Services‚ Health Resources and Services Administration (DHHS-HSRA). It noted that declines were seen across all degree programs—diploma, associate degree, and baccalaureate.

The same DHHS-HSRA report disclosed that the average age for RNs has climbed steadily in recent years resulting in a greater proportion of nurses in the older age brackets who are approaching retirement age.

It noted three factors that contribute to this aging of the RN workforce: (1) the decline in number of nursing school graduates, (2) the higher average age of recent graduating classes, and (3) the aging of the existing pool of licensed nurses.

“Graduates of associate degree programs, the largest source of new RNs, are on average 33 years old when they graduate, considerably older than in 1980 when the average age of a new associate degree graduate was 28. The result has been a significant decline in the proportion of RNs under the age of 30. Between 1980 and 2000, that proportion declined from 25 percent to 9 percent.

“This slowing of new, young entrants coupled with an accelerating retirement rate for older RNs will produce a national supply of nurses that in 2020 will not only be older but no larger than the supply projected for 2005. The number of new licenses in nursing is projected to be 17 percent lower in 2020 than in 2002, while the loss from the RN license pool due to death and retirement is projected to be 128 percent higher,” it added.

It is in this light that the NMC partnered with Willis Management in developing special Gateway Nursing Programs at the college under the GESI: (1) a two-year nursing program; (2) an accelerated degree for graduates of healthcare professions; (3) an NCLEX review with a bridge program in English; (4) accelerated program designed specifically for foreign doctors wanting to complete a nursing course; and (5) a certification program for nurse assistants.

These programs are in line with the U.S. government’s efforts to address the nursing shortage and the Commonwealth’s dream to make the CNMI an education hub in the Pacific and Asia’s gateway to American education, said Deleon Guerrero.

In fact, the U.S. government, through the DHHS-HRSA, provided nearly $93 million for programs dubbed as the Nurse Education Act. Funding for these programs was raised to $100 million in financial year 2004; of this amount, more than $8.5 million were used to finance 34 grants to help fulfill two essential goals under the Nurse Education Act: (1) to expand the country’s workforce; and (2) to increase the diversity in the nursing profession.

In the CNMI, Gov. Juan N. Babauta and Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente have consistently made education a priority in their administration’s agenda, calling the sector a “clean industry” that generates no industrial waste.