Victoria College Gives Solution to Nursing Shortage

A crucial need of nurses is needed in Texas. The need of nurses there is expected to get worse in the next 20 years. The training process through either the LVN Certification or the Associate Degree in Nursing was begun by Victoria College. This is a requirement before a nurse can earn their RN license. The shortage of nurses is a double predicament.

Kathryn Tart, Founding Dean at UHV's School of Nursing said that the huge problem in Texas is the need of 22,000 nurses this year to keep up with the growing demand. There is increasing number of older people and baby boomers and they're going to need a lot of care. An increase in the population needs nursing care. The nurses are getting older so they're retiring. By 2020, there’s a prediction that Texas will have a shortage of 70,000 nurses. And most of the vacancies are the RN level. There will be several nursing positions to be opened at Citizens Medical Center and Detar Hospitals in Victoria. Officials are actively recruiting nurses at Detar and they have trained about a dozen of recent graduates to enter the workforce. There is a 5% vacancy rate and openings that is mostly in the high-risk of specialties according to Sammie Drehr, the Chief Nursing Officer. Lynne Voskamp, Chief Nursing Officer at Citizens Medical Center said that recruiting is actively done by the citizens and the current staff members conduct cross training so if one area is short, they may be able to move a nurse from another area that's not short. Both hospitals’ goal is to fill any voids without compromising patient care. If a nurse wants to teach, he must have a masters degree or higher.

Getting an advanced degree in Victoria was not possible because the highest level offered is the Associate Degree in Nursing through Victoria College. In year 2006, the University of Houston began to offer the Bachelor Degree in Nursing and then the Masters Degree in Nursing. Crystal Salazar, RN, is currently enrolled in the BSN program. When the Bachelors program was brought there she knew it was something that she wanted to do because she likes going to school. A part of the new Allied Health Building in Victoria College is the nursing lab; this allows the UHV nursing students to have an access to the state-of-the-art equipment in order to acquire more knowledge. Having a proactive approach is the key to deal with the nursing shortage. [via]