California Hospitals Sponsor Legislative Package To Address Nurse Shortage; Estimates Indicate State Will Have Shortfall of More Than 25,000 Nurses by 2006.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 27, 2001

A legislative package aimed at addressing California's serious nurse shortage is being sponsored by the California Healthcare Association (CHA).

SB 317 (Ortiz, D-Sacramento) would create the Expansion Nursing Education Program, modeled after the state's highly successful Song-Brown Act, which has provided funds to help educate thousands of family practice residents and other health professionals for more than 25 years. The bill would provide an annual funding allocation to the Office of Statewide Health Planning & Development (OSHPD) for the expansion of existing nursing education programs. OSHPD also administers the Song-Brown program.

SB 457 (Scott, D-Altadena) aims to standardize nursing program prerequisites and streamline other issues related specifically to nursing education within and between both the California Community Colleges (CCC) and the California State University (CSU) systems.

"California is in the midst of a serious nurse shortage, which if left unchecked, will result in nothing short of a public health crisis," said CHA President C. Duane Dauner. "This legislative package is absolutely essential to ensuring that quality patient care continues to be provided in hospitals and other health care facilities."

According to the state Economic Development Department (EDD), California faces a shortfall of more than 25,000 registered nurses (RNs) by 2006. In sheer numbers, California currently has more than 247,000 RNs with active licenses, but will need in excess of 303,000 RNs by 2006. But, if current graduate rates hold steady, California will have only 277, 857 RNs with active licenses in 2006.

Statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor indicate that California has the lowest number of RNs per 100,000 population in the country. California has 566 RNs per 100,000 population, compared to the national average of 798 RNs per 100,000 population. Massachusetts has the highest number of RNs per 100,000 population -- 1,190.

Dauner noted that the nurse shortage problem is only going to get worse in the next few years, as California's overall population continues to grow and the baby boom generation ages.

"As this generation moves from middle age to senior citizens, their demand for health care services (including hospital nursing) will increase dramatically," he said. "In a highly saturated managed care market such as California, only the sickest patients are hospitalized - and as more of the population ages, a greater number of acutely ill people will require not only more RNs, but more highly trained and specialized RNs."

SB 317, as it progresses through the legislative process, will call for the allocation of $30 million for the first year of the Expansion Nursing Education Program -- enough money to cover the first year expenses of 4,000 additional nursing students. The allocation would then be increased to $60 million in the second year, in order to cover the annual expenses of two classes of 4,000 students each. The third year funding would increase to $90 million and in the fourth year the allocation would reach $120 million -- enabling the state to educate four classes of 4,000 students each. Under this proposal, subsequent allocations would remain constant at $120 million per year.

Based on figures from the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN), the state currently graduates about 5,000 nursing students from pre-RN licensure programs each year.

About 4,700 of those graduates annually go on to become RNs after passing a state-administered exam. SB 317 would nearly double the number of nursing school graduates, beginning at the end of the fourth year and every year thereafter.

SB 457 will require statewide standardization of core nursing prerequisite courses such as English, psychology, anatomy, physiology, microbiology, chemistry and nutrition. Currently, there is tremendous variation in the content and teaching of these courses within and between the Community College and CSU systems. As a result, students who complete their prerequisite courses in a community college or who earn an associate degree and desire to transfer to a baccalaureate program at a CSU campus must often retake lower division courses and/or take challenge examinations to move forward.

SB 457 also addresses such issues as statewide "transfer agreements" and the creation of a statewide nursing program vacancy information system.