The federal government is trying to tackle the nationwide nursing shortage with a new bill as universities in Hampton Roads are expanding their nursing programs to help do the same.
The Train More Nurses Act calls on federal agencies to review grant programs that support the nursing workforce, recommend changes to help veteran nurses transition into teaching and open more pathways for career advancement.
Virginia Wesleyan University and Old Dominion University are responding with plans to grow their programs – from a new partnership with Sentara Health to expand clinical training sites.
However, school leaders said incentives like higher pay are still needed to draw experienced nurses into the classroom.
“We need these faculty. We need to increase the number of these faculty to have these nursing programs so that we can, in the end, produce more nurses that we then need to go into the workforce,” said Deirdre Gonsalves-Jackson, provost at VWU.
David Black, a high-level administrator at the school, said that the shortage is a bottleneck that starts with faculty. Until schools can hire more instructors, he said, they can’t expand enrollment — even as retirements accelerate and demand rises.
National estimates show more than a million nurses could leave the workforce by 2030, making it critical to draw experienced nurses into teaching roles so programs have the staff to grow, Black said.
Against that backdrop, Sentara College of Health Sciences — long tied to the region’s hospital system — is preparing to move onto Virginia Wesleyan’s campus. The two institutions are in the middle of a two-year merger that will create the Sentara College of Health Sciences at VWU by 2028.
The change will fold 13 Sentara programs into the university, spanning from certificates in patient care and cardiovascular technology to bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing.
Gonsalves-Jackson said that range is designed to meet healthcare needs at every level, from support staff to advanced practice nurses.
“The nice thing about merging with Sentara college is that Sentara college students use Sentara hospitals for their clinical sites,” Gonsalves-Jackson said.
Rene Love, dean of Elmer School of Nursing at ODU, said finding clinical sites for training nursing students has been one of the biggest challenges in nursing education.
“We aim for all of the big healthcare centers and local healthcare centers to partner with us, work with us, to help us meet the needs,” Love said.
Another hurdle is affordability.
Gonsalves-Jackson said many prospective students are working adults who cannot easily step away from jobs or family responsibilities to pursue full-time study.
“You have to make it affordable-affordable so that they can do it,” Gonsalves-Jackson said. “I think you have to be as flexible as you can in terms of providing coursework during times when they aren't working.”
She said giving credit for prior learning, along with scholarships, tuition breaks and that flexible scheduling, can help working nurses advance their degrees without losing income.
