"Kentucky's impending crisis in nursing care is getting proactive treatment and an infusion of $1 million to help fund newly developed ongoing plans for the Bluegrass.
Bluegrass Community and Technical College (BCTC) is receiving an allocation of $200,000 per year for five years from the Bluegrass Workforce Investment Board this fall to help increase the number of trained nurses going into the labor market. In addition, a wide-ranging network of hospitals, clinics and government agencies are working to build community partnerships to address both the current and future health care workforce shortage.
"This is a very proactive approach that would not have happened if we did not have a wide variety of community involvement," said Dr. Jim Kerley, CEO/president of BCTC. "There is a major crisis brewing in health care -the wave of the future will be more collaboration between the community, hospitals, and other groups."
The growing crisis in Kentucky nursing care has been well documented. The Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA) in a 2002 hospital survey found an estimated 1,750 full-time jobs of RNs vacant in the hospitals and that the number of associate degree nurses had decreased since the 1990s. Kentucky is also ranked high among states with an older population. The U.S. Census in 1995 ranked Kentucky 28th among the states in its concentration of population over 65. By 2010, Kentucky is expected to rank 14th.
Kentucky is part of the growing national trend for shortages in nurses. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Dr. Peter Buerhaus, the United States will experience a 20 percent shortage in the number of nurses needed in our nation's health care system by the year 2020.
Colleges such as BCTC play a significant role in training nursing personnel. Of all registered nurses entering the profession each year, more than 60 percent are graduates of associate degree nursing programs, according to the National Center for Education Studies.
With Bluegrass area employment expected to grow from 389,264 to 468,841 between 2000 and 2010, an increase of 20.4 percent, health care support occupations are expected to be one of the largest growth areas. The need for registered nurses is expected to exceed 33 percent.
This demand clearly points to the need to graduate more nurses. "We have so many people who are qualified for our program, but we lacked the capacity to enroll them," said Kerley. "What we are doing now will open capacity, so that more students can get in, including more non-traditional and minority students."
The 2004-05 nursing programs at BCTC had 600 applicants with the capacity to accept 100. When Jay McChord, councilman for the Lexington Fayette-Urban County Government, first learned of this capacity dilemma, he took it on as an issue that he, the county government and others in the community could help address, he said. "Every hospital in Lexington is physically expanding," he observed. "Regionally, health care is a laser to growing our economy."
Over the five-year period of the allocation from the Bluegrass Workforce Investment Board, 600 to 800 sustainable, high-paying jobs will be created. "When we create more jobs, we add to the tax base without raising taxes," he said.
According to statistics included in the BCTC plan for the nursing program expansion, new Practical Nurses (PN) will earn an average of $32,000 per year; new Registered Nurses (RN) will earn an average of $48,000 per year; and Nursing Assistants (NA) will average $24,960. This income impacts new tax dollars for Lexington/Fayette County to the tune of $4,048,000.
The Bluegrass Workforce Investment Board has become involved as part of its mission "to enhance the skills of the region's workforce," according to Director Lori Collins. The Board is part of the Bluegrass Area Development District that serves the 17 counties of the Bluegrass Region. Funding for its activities come from federal dollars.
"Lexington is a health care mecca for the eastern part of the state, West Virginia and even part of Ohio," Collins said. "We've heard from numerous health care facilities about the difficulties of finding and keeping nurses. This is an opportunity to dramatically increase the number of trained nurses in the labor market."
Some funding allocated to BCTC may be utilized to retrain workers who have lost jobs due to foreign trade or competition.
For Carolyn Lewis, Ph.D., assistant dean of the nursing division at BCTC, serving the needs of the community is the core of the nursing program's strategy as well as her personal philosophy. She was a driving force behind the organization of a meeting of community partnerships for expansion of the nursing programs at BCTC, held July 20 at the Embassy Suites Hotel.
"There is a need to build bridges that have never been built before," she said. "By 2020, health care will be diminished due to a lack of nurses, unless we work together now."
Working together means sharing resources. Clinical sites and labs will be utilized at area hospitals in order to accommodate the larger student populations without the need to build new buildings, Lewis said. Numerous hospitals, clinics and other facilities are being approached to help with the expanding nursing program.
Any action plan put into place has to address the needs of individual students as well, Lewis said. Many students cannot go to school during the day due to family or work obligations, and as a result, BCTC is developing evening and weekend programs. The College has recently received approval for these programs from the State Board of Nursing. The programs will begin in August 2007.
The expanding nursing program at BCTC is also incorporating a number of other significant initiatives. Among these are educational programs on nursing in secondary schools, specialty certifications, and rural community projects. In addition, a distance education program allowing learners to earn a PN degree online (labs and clinicals would be done in-person) is under development.