I am always amazed at the amount of money spent today repetitive studies and surveys–you know, the kind that says we have a nursing shortage. Or the ones “searching” for the reasons for the shortage. They are the studies and surveys in which the answers have been well established, but instead of moving forward with solutions, the academics and spin maestros continue to restudy, resurvey, and then restudy. It would seem that they are intentionally avoiding finding a solution, as that would be far too painful and get too many industry types upset. Better to just wring one’s hands, collect grant money, and re-re-report on what has been common knowledge for the past 30 years.

Now this gem is from Advance for Nurses:

Nursing Faculty Shortage Worries CEOs

Worsening faculty shortages in academic health centers are threatening the nation’s health professions educational infrastructure, according to the latest report by the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC).

Based on a questionnaire of AAHC members — the CEOs of academic health centers nationwide — the report found 94 percent of CEOs think faculty shortages are a problem in at least one health professions school, and 69 percent think these shortages are a problem for the entire institution.

Academic health centers train a major portion of the nation’s health workforce in professions including nursing, allied health, dentistry, medicine, pharmacy, public health and veterinary medicine.

Several factors account for the widespread faculty shortages, including retirement among baby boomers; low level of interest in academic careers among those entering the health professions; and disparities in salaries between academe and private practice or industry.

Now that is quite upsetting that the faculty shortage is worrying CEOs. These are the people with power to push through changes and alter the status quo, but it seems more advantageous to blame someone else for their problems.

Facing shortages, half of respondents reported the need to make institutional changes. Institutional responses included cutting programs, merging programs, and limiting student enrollment. Limiting student enrollment was the most common strategy cited by CEOs.

Asked to assess state government awareness of health workforce issues, including faculty shortages, CEOs gave governors and state legislatures low ratings. However, CEOs expressed the need for federal and state governments to take a great deal of action on health workforce issues.

So this is so typical. Rather than making becoming an instructor a more lucrative and exciting career choice (such as eliminating a lot of the BS that goes along with academic positions), they’re limiting students. There are an infinite number of things that can be done to make teaching more attractive, even if you can’t outright raise the salary. What about completely reimbursing the teacher’s loans for her advanced degree? Pay all of her living expenses while she is attaining it? Free tuition at your school for her whole family with guaranteed admission? Shorter working hours at the same pay? Less need to publish bogus papers and be the first author? In fact, cut out the need to publish at all, except if the teacher wants to. More control over the curriculum (a lot of nursing programs are so archaic and out of touch with reality, it must truly nauseate any intelligent person who considers a teaching career)?

These are just a few ideas.

Now, what would the CEOs like the state and federal government legislations to do? Go out and round up nurses and force them to become teachers? It is always so much simpler to push the blame onto someone else, isn’t it. The state legislators have little to do with anemic faculty situations, except at state schools, but even then, the institution’s have a lot of autonomy. The school itself can make decisions on instituting innovative plans. Maybe they could also start by getting rid of ineffective CEOs, like the ones whining in this survey. Maybe they can channel funds by getting rid of management bloat, and not rewarding their ineffective CEOs with multi-zillion dollar bonuses. Perhaps place a contingency on that bonus–if you get X amount of new nursing instructors to sign up, then you get to go buy Christmas presents.

But these are solutions no one wants to hear.