Margaret “Peggy” Leonard, senior vice president of clinical services at Hudson Health Plan in Tarrytown, addressed the widespread nursing faculty shortage and just what her agenda will be as a new member of the New York State Board of Nursing.
Q: Let”™s talk health care reform. Will it help or hinder nurse education?
Leonard: “There will be a larger role for nurse practitioners, physician assistants and clinical nurse specialists in the new collaborative model of health care based on having a medical home, which will emphasize care coordination to manage chronic diseases better and reduce hospitalizations. A primary care physician may oversee your care, but the physician cannot and does not have to do it all. An RN can do the health assessment; the nurse practitioner can write the prescription. The era of ”˜turf protection”™ at all levels of health care is fading away.
“The health reform law promotes the type of care that nurses provide, such as primary care, prevention, chronic care management, transitional care and care coordination. There will be many opportunities to use what”™s known as ”˜mid-level professionals,”™ or licensed health care workers who are not M.D.”™s. The health reform law promotes federal funding for nursing education, but what is encouraging is that it will establish loan programs and scholarships to support nursing education students. There is a shortage of nurses because there aren”™t enough nurse educators. Almost every nursing school has a waiting list of applicants and has to turn people away because they don”™t have enough faculty to teach them. In the liberal arts, one can accommodate up to 300 students in a lecture hall, but the ratio of faculty to students in nursing school is much, much higher because nursing students go through clinical rotations which have an 8:1 or 10:1 student/faculty ratio.”
Q: Gauge the extent of the nursing faculty shortage in the Hudson Valley region.
Leonard: “It”™s dire in the Hudson Valley ”¦ faculty are aging out: the average age of nursing educators in the Hudson Valley is the mid-50s. They are not being replaced. Younger nurses coming out of nursing school can find jobs in New York City or tertiary hospitals in the Westchester area, and earn much more money than nursing educators do even after teaching for several years. New York state has to make it more attractive for nurses to go into education. One way is to offer loan forgiveness for nurses pursuing a master”™s in education. Providing grants and scholarship money is another way to encourage more nurses to go into education.
“As a member of the New York State Board of Nursing, I want to continue to raise the bar for professionalism and higher education at the basic entry level of nursing. It may sound contrary after discussing the nursing shortage, but I have always felt strongly that all registered nurses should have baccalaureate degrees. To be truly effective in today”™s health care environment, a nurse needs skills such as critical thinking, resource management and community health, which are imparted in a baccalaureate program.
“A bill now before the state Legislature would require all new non-baccalaureate prepared nurses to obtain a baccalaureate degree within 10 years. The Board of Nursing will work with academic institutions to think of creative ways to achieve this, whether it is offering classes onsite in hospitals or offering them online.”
