Innovative programs and strategic partnerships with the health care industry to address a shortage of nurses have helped produce a 74 percent increase in the number of new nursing graduates from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities in the last five years.
In 2005, the system's colleges and universities graduated 3,800 nurses, an increase from 2,186 graduates in 2001. During that time, nearly 14,000 nursing students were graduated from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.
By 2006, the system produced 80 percent of the state's new nursing graduates who earned diplomas and two-year, four-year and graduate-level degrees. The system's colleges and universities in greater Minnesota produced a 92 percent increase and the Twin Cities area institutions produced a 42 percent increase in the number of new nursing graduates.
"Partnerships among the health care industry, our colleges and universities, and the workforce development system have proven to be one of the most effective strategies for relieving the crisis in health care employment," said Chancellor James H. McCormick. "This growth is encouraging news, but we also recognize we are still a long way from ensuring that Minnesota will have the well-educated health care work force it needs for the 21st century."
To continue this momentum, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system will seek $3 million from the Minnesota Legislature to:
"Solving the shortage of health care workers is challenging," said Mary Rothchild, the system's assistant director for workforce development. "That's partly because health care education programs are expensive to operate. Tuition typically covers less than one-third of the cost of providing health care programs in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.
"Without adequate public support, our colleges and universities are unable to hire faculty, provide adequate classroom space and coordinate the clinical part of the program to meet the demand," she said. Many colleges report they have waiting lists of prospective students.
Alleviating the shortage of nurses and other health care professionals will be critical to meeting the needs of an aging population, according to the Healthcare Workforce Collaborative, which focuses on finding solutions to the labor shortage. "As the gap between supply and demand of health care professional services increases, Minnesotans will experience longer waiting periods and limited resources for patient care," the group has said in a recent report.
Three factors -- a shortage of qualified nursing faculty, the lack of clinical sites students need to complete their educational experience and low interest in health care fields among students -- must be addressed, the group has said.
To that end, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities established a center of excellence known as the Center for Integrated Health Science Education and Practice in November 2005. Led by Winona State University, the center has partners that include six community and technical colleges and several health care organizations. Among the initiatives, the center and five health care providers have launched a new certification course in critical care nursing and created a new curriculum in bioinformatics, which applies principles of information sciences and technologies to make complex life sciences data more useful, with the Mayo Clinic and K-12 schools.
The Healthcare Education Industry Partnership, based at Minnesota State University, Mankato, began a statewide initiative called the Minnesota Community Health Worker Project to reduce cultural and linguistic barriers to health care and to increase the number of health care workers from diverse backgrounds.
Other innovative programs in the colleges and universities include:
And, by the fall of 2007, a consortium of Minnesota State University Moorhead; Minnesota State University, Mankato; Winona State University; and Metropolitan State University plans to offer a doctorate in nursing practice to reduce the shortage of qualified nursing instructors.
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system comprises 32 state universities and community and technical colleges serving the higher education needs of Minnesota. The system serves about 240,000 students per year in credit-based courses and 130,000 students in non-credit courses.
Email this article | Permanent link | Topstories news | Topstories news archives
Minnesota State
University, Mankato
Mankato, MN 56001
1-800-722-0544
© 2005-2013 Minnesota State University, Mankato. Minnesota State University, Mankato is a member of
Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system and an affirmative action/equal opportunity university.
