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New Flexible Learning Approach Offers a Solution to Nursing Shortage by David Hopkins, Ph.D.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The growing nursing shortage is posing a real threat to the U.S. healthcare system, one that can be alleviated in part through new approaches to nursing education.
The number of RNs in the workforce is expected to peak this year and then decline, due to the aging workforce, despite the fact that RNs top the list of the 10 occupations with the highest projected job growth.
The shortage is even taking a toll on the level of care today’s nurses are able to provide. According to a study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (as quoted by the American Nurses Association) an estimated 20,000 people die each year because they checked into a hospital with overworked nurses.
While the cause of the nursing shortage has long been linked to an aging and disaffected nursing population leaving the practice, we believe a more fundamental cause is the lack of nurse educators, who are unable to serve the growing waitlists of qualified nursing student applicants. In 2005, schools of nursing, colleges and universities across the country turned away nearly 180,000 qualified applicants, due in large measure to the shortage of nursing educators.
Given the growing need for more nurses, we are investigating more creative ways to educate the next generation of nurses, whether it’s LPN to RN or RN to a bachelor’s level nurse. Many of these individuals lack the time and financial resources for traditional campus degree programs and are looking for more flexible programs that are better suited to their lives.
Recognizing these needs, alternatives like distance learning programs and online degrees are helping to unburden the university system and ultimately will help alleviate the nursing shortage. Enrollment in college level distance education courses continues to grow: the most recent studies on distance learning published by the U.S. Department of Education found that student enrollment nearly doubled from 1994-95 to 1997-98, and then more than doubled again in 2000-01 when 2.9 million students were enrolled in college level distance education courses.
However, educating adult learners is not without its own set of challenges. The first 120 days are critical to an adult learner’s success. For many, they must learn how to learn again. Once they get over this initial hurdle and get a taste of accomplishment, their chances for completing their degree increase dramatically.
With an eye toward retention, student-centric approaches and new technology for distance learning are being developed.
A flexible learning process, which can be found at Career Learning Centers (CLC) in Fort Lauderdale for instance, offers a mix of face-to-face tutoring, along with self-paced study materials and online tutoring to ensure success on examinations, all in a format that fits with the busy schedule of an adult learner.
These face-to-face sessions meet once a week for four hours and conclude after three to twelve weeks (depending on the subject). They are designed to overcome the scheduling obstacles customary in traditional programs with morning, afternoon and evening options, Monday through Saturday.
Career Learning Centers doesn’t require ASN students to purchase additional study guides, tutorials or modules and will help students regardless of the distance learning system they may have already purchased.
Perhaps the biggest advancement in distance education is in the realm of technology. Career Learning Centers offers a full academic experience that incorporates online tutors as part of a new Learning Management System (LMS).
The online component provides interactive quizzes, multi-media lectures, valuable hyperlinks to web resources and other activities to reinforce the classroom-style learning environment. All of these supplemental tools serve to reinforce the classroom-style experience, engage the various learning styles, allow ASN students to review difficult lecture material or catch up if they missed a session and simulate testing they will face for the high stakes exams.
“The goal is to hold the ASN students’ hands and help them through subjects with a mix of face-to-face assistance and independent tools that are right for them,” said the Director of Career Learning Centers.
Pressure to educate the next generation of nurses will undoubtedly continue. In fact, the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice and the American Nurses Association recommend that, by 2010, the majority of nurses should have a bachelor’s degree in order to meet patient needs most effectively. In addition, a University of Pennsylvania study found that nurses with a higher level of education were able to deliver a higher degree of patient care.
The integration of dynamic online learning tools available 24/7 coupled with the personalized education of face-to-face tutoring centers like CLC, are able to accommodate the life demands and learning style of each individual interested in advancing his or her nursing career. The flexible learning approach also helps nurse educators serve the maximum number of ASN students with high quality education tailored to the nursing students’ needs, rather than the nursing students conforming to the traditional program format.