Media Contact:
Jennifer Park Lollar
(205) 934-3888
E-mail: jpark@uab.edu Posted on May 2, 2007 at 10:30 a.m.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala - The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Health System has given the UAB School of Nursing $1 million to start an intensive 24 to 36 month master's program for persons who have a bachelor's degree in any field.
This second degree program is designed to introduce 45 new nurses annually into the workforce, in addition to the more than 250 students currently graduated annually through the bachelor's and master's programs offered by the UAB School of Nursing.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 1.2 million new and replacement nurses will be needed by 2014 and, of this number, federal analysts project that more than 703,000 will be newly created RN positions that will account for 40 percent of all new jobs in the health care sector.
Alabama will not escape this crisis. The Alabama Hospital Association estimates the demand for nurses will increase by 25 percent over the next five years.
"Nurses are the front line for medical needs," said UAB School of Nursing Dean Doreen Harper, Ph.D. "These intensive programs have proven to be highly effective in other states in easing the burden of nursing vacancies and adding to the pool of needed nursing faculty. Everyone at the UAB School of Nursing is excited to be partnering with the UAB Health System to respond to the growing nurse shortage."
"The UAB Health System will be impacted with this human resource issue in the coming years," said David Hoidal, CEO of the UAB Health System. "When Dean Harper brought this idea to me, it was obvious that we could meet the needs of not only the Health System, but the School of Nursing and most importantly, the people who come to us for health care.
"This as an opportunity to provide a new pool of nursing students with training, while also helping the UAB Health System meet its future needs for nurses," Hoidal added. "This is a very good investment for the Health System and will pay dividends for the people of Alabama and beyond."
Harper said benefits of the program include its ability to attract mature motivated students to the nursing profession and that these students are more likely to remain in Central Alabama and the state. Additionally, it provides the School of Nursing the ability to groom and mentor students toward becoming expert clinicians and future faculty members.
"Graduates from intensive masters nursing program such as these are a good nursing workforce match to the missions of institutions like UAB Hospital and its magnet status, as well as all of our clinical partners. These students are highly talented and eager to enter the clinical nursing pool and faculty positions. Since they likely will remain in Birmingham to develop their careers, it's a win-win situation for us all."