A nationwide shortage of nurses is threatening the quality of patient care across the country. Nurses, prepared at the master's degree level, can make a difference by bringing new expertise to clinical practice settings and by becoming faculty members. Responding to the need for nursing leaders, Walden University, an online higher education institution, today introduced a Master of Science (M.S.) in Nursing program.

Some interesting stats an becoming a nurse....

126,000 nursing positions in U.S. hospitals are vacant, according to the American Hospital Association.

By 2020, there will be 400,000 fewer nurses than will be needed to provide patient care, according to research in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Because of chronic hiring shortfalls, registered nursing has become the top occupation in terms of job growth through the year 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 2004, U.S. nursing schools turned away almost 16,000 prospective students due to insufficient faculty, clinical sites and budgets, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

64.8 percent of nursing schools cited faculty shortages as the reason for not accepting all qualified applicants, according to a 2003 survey by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Posted on July 10, 2004 at 11:19 AM

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Nursing Degrees: Is there a Shortage of Nurses?