LB
nursing program suffers faculty shortage
By Mellani Lubuag
Online Forty-Niner
Assistant News Editor
Students are being turned away from the Nursing Program at Cal State Long Beach
because of faculty and classroom space shortages, said Loucine Huckabay, professor
and director of the Nursing Program. The nursing department also announced the
potential addition of a much-needed full-time faculty member to the program.
KPCC’s “Talk of the City” hosted a discussion about Southern
California’s nursing shortage Friday at CSULB’s Foundation Building.
The radio broadcast was hosted by Kitty Felde and included various experts from
local colleges and hospitals, including Huckabay; Ron Norby, director of the
Veterans Affiars Long Beach Healthcare system; Judy Fix, senior vice president
of Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at Long Beach Memorial Medical
Center and Miller Children’s Hospital; and Lauren Sharp, dean for the School
of Health, Science and Math at Long Beach Community College.
The panel convened to discuss why California ranks 49th in the nation in the
number of nurses per capita, while nursing schools, including CSULB, have turned
away 40 percent of the students who apply.
With 800 students and only four classrooms, the nursing department is forced
to juggle students with only a few facilities very gingerly, said Huckabay. The
department employs the help of local hospitals and uses their facilities to hold
classes.
“
What we have done is our partnership with Long Beach Memorial Medical Center
and Long Beach V.A. Medical Center,” Huckabay said.
“
They have been so gracious that they have opened their facilities for us to
take our students there and use their classrooms and simulated labs.”
Local hospitals are helping with the crisis by funding accelerated programs,
partnering with schools and acting as mentors, Norby said.
“
One of the things that I am hoping to do this next year is fund a full-time
faculty member for the school or nursing,””Norby said
Huckabay said there is a faculty shortage all across the United States, but that
CSULB is better off than others because California State Universities have an
educator option within the program so they may produce their own teachers.
“
The primary reason is that as the age of the nurses get older and so do the
faculty,” Huckabay said.
With the average age of faculty being 50 years, Huckabay said the program must
encourage nursing students to pursue education and continue with the doctorate
so that they may fill the gap of the aging staff.
Another significant reason for the faculty shortage is because of the pay decrease
faculty endure when switching from service to academic positions.
“
It’s very difficult to keep faculty when service can pay them $20,000
more than what we pay,” Huckabay said.
The problem, Sharp said, is, as state schools, CSULB and LBCC cannot just raise
tuition to buy more resources. Also, the nursing program
by design calls for small teacher-student ratios that are often intense and expensive.
The silver lining to the nursing crisis, Huckabay said, is that CSULB is”“stellar” in
its nursing graduating rate.
“
We have 98.6 percent retention,” Huckabay said. “It’s highly
unusual.”
Part of the reason for such a high retention rate is the selection process to
be admitted into the program is very discriminating. The program only accepts
students with a 3.1 grade point average and above, Huckabay said.
Also, the nursing department has programs in place to help students succeed.
“
Within the first three weeks of the semester, if a student is weak in one area
immediately we identify that, diagnose it and provide the
assistance that they need,” Huckabay said.
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