Government and Community Relations
Speeches and Presentations
Community Colleges Well Positioned to Counter Nursing Shortage R. Thomas Flynn President, Monroe Community College Community College Times 11/26/2002 Community colleges continue to exert their prominence in addressing and solving community problems. The current shortage of nursing professionals affects every community and community colleges are in the best position to assist in addressing this national problem. While it is a difficult problem due to the cost of preparing a registered nurse, community colleges can help solve it through their natural propensity for community partnerships. Educating a nurse is three times as expensive as educating a liberal arts student at Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y. Those cost pressures, coupled with recruitment challenges, have prompted many teaching hospitals, colleges and universities to make the difficult decision to close nursing education programs. With the country in the midst of a critical shortage of nurses, community colleges—whose missions revolve around meeting community needs—must respond with energy and creativity to encourage community leaders to invest in and educate the next generation of nurses. Health care education was a primary motivator for establishing Monroe Community College (MCC) in 1961. Our founding Board of Trustees Chair Dr. Samuel J. Stabins, a renowned surgeon and respected humanitarian, was passionate about the impact MCC needed to make on the nursing shortage of the 1960s. MCC continues to prepare students to work in local hospitals and health care facilities—as nurses and as professionals in a variety of allied health fields, including dental studies, radiologic technology, massage therapy and health information management. Our partners in the Rochester business and health care communities offer tremendous support to ensure our health education programs continue to grow. On Nov. 7, leaders from Rochester-area hospitals and insurance agencies announced their combined commitment of $1 million (over a five-year period) to increase the capacity and, ultimately, the number of graduates from MCC’s Nursing program. The partnership was a result of MCC administrators proactively pursuing the health care community to invest in MCC’s Nursing program. With one major health care provider on board, the next step was to engage The IMC, a local, not-for-profit business organization with more than 400 member companies that provides workforce development and human resource solutions. The IMC recognized the benefits of investing in MCC’s Nursing program for our community and quickly set to work with MCC administrators to organize a collaborative effort, in hopes of making an impact on the nursing shortage in Rochester. Within one month, The IMC assisted MCC in engaging four additional partners because it made business sense for health care providers and insurers to complement their existing recruitment efforts by growing a local nursing education program. As a result of this synergy, the capacity of MCC’s Nursing program will increase by 30 percent. Meanwhile, health care organizations will realize a savings in recruiting costs and have a larger, qualified pool from which to recruit new employees. In addition, the clinical components of nursing education programs require strong relationships with local hospitals so that instructors and students can gain access to a variety of health care settings. These partnerships also provide a means to reduce barriers between organizations and increase the selection of clinical opportunities for our students and faculty. Community partnerships such as the one announced at MCC should be designed for a minimum of five years in order to effectively increase capacity. Our partners realize, as do our Nursing Department leaders, that this initiative alone will not solve the nursing shortage in our community. MCC leadership will continue its conversation with local health care leaders while actively pursuing federal, state and other grants to ensure the program meets the local need for nurses for years to come. The faculty and staff of MCC’s Nursing Department are committed to recruiting, encouraging and educating nursing students while actively pursing additional solutions to the nursing shortage within the community. The responsibility of preparing nurses today falls to the community college because of our community-centered mission. Financially, we face the same rising costs as four-year institutions and the revenue potential is slim to none in most cases. But, community need cannot be abandoned when the bottom line gets tight. The successful response strategy must be engaged on a larger playing field—beyond campus lines—because the potential impact affects the community as a whole. Community college leaders must engage business and industry CEOs and build relationships in order to educate more nurses for the community. Community colleges have an opportunity to step up to the challenge of the national nursing crisis. The return on the investment in building relationships with the local health care community is substantial for students and faculty, but even more so in terms of helping the overall community to avoid the devastating effect of having too few nurses. By the very nature of its mission, a community college is well positioned to be an impartial partner in the competitive health care industry and to be actively involved in countering the nursing shortage. |
