ROCK ISLAND, Illinois—
The nursing profession continues to be in demand as an aging workforce nears retirement. One study suggests that Iowa will need to replace a quarter of its current staffing by 2020. But there aren't enough teachers to train them.This is the anatomy of a career at the Trinity College of Nursing and Health Sciences. 300 students here and still growing. All are preparing to build careers as baby boomer nurses retire.
"We're going to have all these open vacancies," said Chancellor Lori Rodrigues-Fisher. "We're going to be really hurting for nurses."
It's a situation reaching across the region. At Unity HealthCare in Muscatine, feeling the pinch during challenging times.
"The nursing shortage has hit us like a lot of other hospitals," Dr. Matthew Sojka said. "But being rural, it does hurt us a little bit more."
Rodrigues-Fisher should know. As a nurse-turned-administrator, she's watching a disturbing trend across the country.
"We have adequate numbers of students applying," she said. "We just don't have adequate faculty to teach them. We have to limit our enrollment into the program."
The reason comes down to dollars and cents. A master's degree is required to teach nursing in Illinois, but nurses with those credentials can earn up to $30,000 a year more in practice than in the classroom.
"You can make more money in practice than in the classroom," Rodrigues-Fisher said. "That's the biggest reason why we see this shortage getting worse all the time."
These nursing students in Rock Island are among the lucky ones. They're building a career that's in search of teachers.
"The shortage is going to get much worse as soon as the baby boomers retire," Rodrigues-Fisher concluded.
