With Doctor nurse and hospital shortages, how will Obama enable health care for so many millions of new patients? He can't!
Leaders from Maryland’s health care industry Monday unveiled $11 million in grants to help state colleges close a widening shortage of nurses.
The grants, being divvied among 17 Maryland nursing schools, will be used to lure faculty and students, and improve technology at the universities.
Maryland’s nursing shortage is expected to reach 10,000 by 2016, according to the Maryland Hospital Association. The current vacancy rate of nurses at state hospitals is 8 percent. The economic downturn has helped the industry because many retired nurses have come back to work, but once the recession ends the shortage will worsen, said Carmela Coyle, CEO of the Maryland Hospital Association.
The first round of grants will increase the number of nurses graduating by 300 students and add 20 faculty positions at nursing programs across the state.
“The number of nurses graduating from Maryland schools are simply not enough,” said Ronald B. Peterson, president of Johns Hopkins Health System and co-chair of the “Who Will Care?” campaign at a press conference Monday. “We cannot take our eye off the nursing demand.”
The campaign’s goal is to add 1,500 new nursing students.
The program has raised $15.5 million to date through the state’s business community, including funds from the Baltimore construction form Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., MedStar Health, the region's largest hospital system, and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, the region's largest health insurer.
Greater Baltimore Medical Center, for example, gave $500,000.
The goal is to raise $20 million from the private sector by the end of the year, and then raise an addition $40 million in state, local and federal funds.
Among the local colleges receiving grants include:
• Anne Arundel Community College;
• Community College of Baltimore County;
• Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing;
• Stevenson University; and,
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