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Where traditional schools have discontinued their nursing programs, for-profit—or proprietary—colleges are helping fill the void. These institutions, which aren’t at the mercy of federal and state funds, and which tend to be more sensitive to market forces than traditional colleges and universities, have begun to add and expand their nursing programs.

Enrollment in entry-level baccalaureate nursing programs grew 16.6 percent in 2003—good news for the nationwide nursing shortage, which a Web site sponsored by Johnson & Johnson estimates to be at more than 100,000 vacant nursing positions.

But baccalaureate nursing programs also turned away more than 11,000 qualified students—more than twice the number of students turned away in 2002, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

In order to reverse the shortage, the enrollment of young people in nursing programs would have to increase at least 40 percent each year to replace the nurses expected to leave the workforce through retirement, the association said.

Clearly, prospective students are interested in nursing and health care facilities are clamoring for nurses. But with recent federal and state budget cuts, traditional colleges and universities have been unable to expand and add enough faculty members to meet demand.

Even some private schools are ending their nursing programs. While the University of Southern California is graduating its last nursing students in the spring, Syracuse University is phasing out its nursing program in 2006, according to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Michael Diamond, a vice president at USC, told the Chronicle that USC’s nursing program did not fit into the strategic goals of the university.

Maureen Thompson, Ph.D., APRN, director of Syracuse University’s School of Nursing, said the university decided to discontinue its program in part because it wanted to focus its resources on maintaining the high rankings of some of its other, nationally ranked programs—even though enrollment in the nursing program had increased for two years before the program stopped admitting students.

For-profit—or proprietary—colleges, however, are helping fill the void. These institutions, which aren’t at the mercy of federal and state funds, and which tend to be more sensitive to market forces than traditional colleges and universities, have begun to add and expand their nursing programs.

Last summer, Education Management Corp., which has 66 primary campus locations in the United States and Canada, did not offer any nursing degrees. However, since then, the company has acquired six institutions that do, and plans to add more nursing programs, according to the Chronicle article.

Keiser College, a multicampus system in Florida, added a nursing program to its Sarasota campus in the fall and plans to offer nursing education on two more campuses, the article said.

Corinthian Colleges and Concorde Career College also are expanding their nursing programs. Corinthian, which operates two licensed professional nursing schools in Indiana and Michigan, has a licensed vocational nursing program scheduled to begin in Anaheim, Calif., in June, and plans to start more nursing programs across the country.

Concorde, which has 12 campuses nationwide, has VN/PN programs at eight campuses and is preparing to add registered nursing programs, said Barbara Johnson, RN, Concorde’s national director of nursing education.

Mary Barry, executive vice president for academic affairs at Corinthian, said proprietary schools are uniquely qualified to have nursing programs because they generate their own investment money. Also, Barry said, Corinthian already maintains small class sizes of about 20 to 25 students maximum per classroom. State boards of nursing require nursing classrooms to maintain certain student-to-teacher ratios, similar to patient-to-nurse ratios in hospitals.

Instructors also are required to be active in helping students succeed. Concorde and Corinthian say they offer extensive remediation programs for students.

Corinthian officials added that computerization is integrated into all curricula, which some traditional public schools can’t afford, and that for-profit schools can offer supplementary facilities for students.

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