May 28th, 2008

While Pennsylvania’s shortage of registered nurses is currently being kept at a minimum thanks to scholarship funding and other initiatives; sources such as Cynthia Mailloux, Ph.D., R.N., chairwoman of Misericordia University’s nursing program, and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services estimate that the shortage will grow much worse in coming years.

Educators and experts say there just aren’t enough nursing professors, leading colleges in Pennsylvania and elsewhere to reject qualified students, reports the Times-Tribune.

U.S. nursing schools turned away more than 42,000 applicants in 2006, partly because of faculty shortages, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.