College of Nursing unable to fully fund its students

by Katy Knapp

Daily Lobo

The College of Nursing estimates it needs $15,000 a year per student to fully educate its undergraduates.

Right now, it receives $11,000 per student.

And about 26 percent of money funded by the state goes to pay personnel and faculty, said Sandra Ferketich, dean of the College of Nursing at UNM.

The college is requesting $300,000 in recurring funds from the New Mexico Legislature as part of UNM's priorities during this month's session in Santa Fe.

The money, if passed by the Legislature, will go toward support staff like advisers, faculty assistants and supplies, Ferketich said.

Ferketich said the faculty has taken on heavier teaching loads and "we're at our limit," she said.

Ferketich said the funding the college receives is not recurring, meaning they have to apply for more money every year.

"For the past three years, we have been given one year funding by the legislature," she said. "When we admit students, we are promising two years of education, but we only get one year of funding."

The money will go to recruiting more faculty and maintaining the college's class size of 128, Ferketich said.

There are approximately 45 full-time faculty members at the college and three positions that need to be filled, she said.

The student-teacher ratio is 1-to-8 at the College of Nursing, she said, which is mandated by state government.

Ideally, the ratio would be 1-to-6, Ferketich said.

Carlos Romero, UNM's director of government affairs, said the request will probably be approved by the legislature.

"Appropriation funding is usually very difficult, especially for recurring," he said. "But the Legislature sees a need for additional nurses and sees a need for high-quality nurses - especially those from UNM."

Ferketich said the College of Nursing needs double the $300,000 they are requesting and is working with Paul Roth, the vice president of the Health Sciences Center, to draft a long-term plan to secure more funding to allow its class size to double.

"Last year alone in the U.S. there were more than 30,000 students turned away from baccalaureate programs (in nursing)," she said.

Ferketich said more than 100,000 students applying for associate nursing degrees are turned away each year.

"This is the time when we need them the most," she said.

Roth said the nurse shortage in New Mexico and the United States is not just a concern because of the lack of nurses available for every patient, but there is also a lack of nurses with higher degrees.

He said because of the expensive health care system in the country, people wait until they are extremely ill before seeing a doctor.

"The patients that are ultimately admitted are sicker, so the expertise has to be at a much greater level, which requires more education," he said. "It's a conspiracy of two factors that is creating almost a perfect storm."

Ferketich agreed. She said in hospitals where there is a lower number of nurses with bachelor's degrees, the mortality rate is higher.

"More people die and more people suffer from failure to rescue," which is where a nurse can detect early on that a patient is getting sicker and communicate it to doctors, she said.

In New Mexico, 60 percent of nurses have associate degrees, while 26 percent have bachelor's degrees, according to a 2005 preliminary report by the New Mexico Nurses Association and New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence.

Ferketich said one reason for the lack of nurses in the United States is lack of faculty at nursing colleges.

"The faculty is getting older and retiring, and the younger ones want to go into clinical roles because they pay more," she said.

A faculty member at UNM's College of Nursing quit last week to work as a clinical nurse, and Ferketich said she doesn't blame her.

"She is getting $25,000 more a year," she said. "She's a single parent and that's a big difference for her."

The $300,000 recurring funds would also be helpful in keeping faculty at the College of Nursing, Ferketich said. She said having money allocated year to year is an obstacle in recruiting faculty because when they get hired, they are only guaranteed work for a year.

"When a person looks for a job, they want a job with some longevity," she said. Most faculty members they recruit work as clinical nurses, she said.

"We have to say to them, 'Will you quit your current job, come work for us, and you'll work here for a year,'" she said.