The College of Nursing in Portland is making dramatic changes to deal with the current fiscal crisis. In addition to raising the minimum G.P.A. from 2.5 to 2.75, they will also be cutting back significantly on transfer admissions and decreasing their overall enrollment. By 2007 they plan to cut the number of undergraduate nursing degrees by 50 percent and next year they will cut enrollment from 505 to 475.
Enrollment in the College of Nursing (BA nursing program) is consistently increasing. In 2002, the number of new students jumped from 347 to 406 (an increase of 14 percent), and in 2003 that number rose from 406 to 505 (an increase of 19 percent). These trends do not seem to be slowing, especially with the continuing national nursing shortage the U. S. is currently experiencing. The nursing shortage, at six percent in 2000, is projected by the Department of Health and Human Services to rise as high as 29 percent by 2020. A national shortage of nursing teachers parallels the national shortage of practicing nurses. Both USM and UMaine Orono are no exceptions to this.
“Hiring more faculty members would create a budgetary deficit we cannot afford,” Provost Joe Wood remarked in an email correspondence. Because of the faculty shortage, USM’s existing faculty has taken on extra courses to accommodate their students. They have also added more students to their already full classes. Both Associate Professor Janis Childs and Nursing Instructor Noreen Vincent agreed that the majority of faculty are currently teaching extra courses.
“I’m sure there’s 51 percent doing overload,” said Childs. “We’ve got more students in classes than we probably should. It’s getting done, but not without stress and fatigue.”
Childs maintains the students are receiving a quality education.
“They’re getting what they need,” she said.
Orono, also short of faculty, is offering more courses to accommodate their increasing enrollment.
“Formerly, we offered nursing courses once a year. Now we’re offering all courses twice a year,” said Associate Professor of Nursing at Orono Catherine Berardelli.
In order to curb the influx of students, USM has set higher standards for their students by raising the minimum G.P.A. from 2.5 to 2.75, said Dean Jane Kirshling.
“Once fully implemented, the plan will control enrollment through admissions,” she said. Orono also raised their minimum G.P.A. last fall semester, but only from 2.5 to 2.6. Orono, though, hasn’t capped or dropped their enrollment. Their overall enrollment continues to rise, said Berardelli. However, because of more stringent requirements more nursing students have dropped-out of the program.
The increase in G.P.A. requirements is intended to increase the quality of students the college graduates, said Susan Sepples, associate professor at USM. Vincent said the trend has shown that students who do not do well in their pre-nursing courses (especially science) don’t do well on their state boards, which is the licensing exam to practice.
“The sciences are a predictor for success,” she said.
Because sciences are a prerequisite for most nursing courses, that area has also been stressed by the increasing nursing enrollment. Rodgers said Provost Joe Wood permitted a new hire in the biology department to deal with the nursing overflow. “We’d flooded out the biology department.”
The college plans to decrease their nursing graduates (pursuing BA’s) 50 percent by 2007. This year their projected undergraduate nursing degrees awarded will fall somewhere between 90 and 100. By 2007 they’re aiming for 45, said Kirschling. Wood pointed to the newly formed Lewiston-Auburn undergraduate nursing program USM added within the last four years. That program will graduate 24 students a year in addition to Portland’s graduates.
Kirschling also said the altered policy will affect transfer student admissions. Historically the College of Nursing’s population has hovered somewhere around 50 percent transfer admissions, said Kirschling. The College will give priority to incoming traditional freshmen who meet all the requirements, which will leave little or no room for transfer admissions. Orono has not turned people away who meet their requirements.
“It was a commitment made by faculty to be facilitative to help meet the nursing shortage,” said Berardelli.
“We do know that what we’re about to do is going to be devastating to transfer students,” said (USM’s) Rodgers. “It isn’t going to help us to accept them and then say you can’t even do coursework.
As the current students graduate, they will open up more spots for transfers, said Kirschling.
USM Graduate Nursing Student Jerri Skinner was concerned about the nursing shortage and decreasing enrollment but said, “It’s better to produce fewer good nurses than more not as good.”
When asked about how he felt about decreasing enrollment in challenging fiscal times President Richard Pattenaude responded, “I think we have to be careful about decreasing enrollment, but [we] don’t maintain enrollment at the expense of quality.”