Faculty shortage puts nursing field in critical condition

As a wave—really a tsunami—of baby boomers retire and age, the nation faces an unprecedented shortage of nearly 1 million nurses by 2030, warns the American Journal of Medical Quality. New York State alone will face a gap of nearly 40,000 nurses. Despite this glaring need, nursing programs are rejecting qualified applicants in record numbers, because of an acute lack of faculty. "These students meet admissions criteria but schools cannot take them because they do not have the capacity to accommodate them," says Lusine Poghosyan, assistant professor at the Columbia University School of Nursing. "We do not have the faculty."