COLUMBIA, S.C. — Lawmakers put $10 million in this year's state budget to fight the nursing shortage through higher education programs, including one that officials say will help expand nursing education programs by offering tuition assistance to students who want to become nursing faculty members.
Students at five private universities will now be eligible for tuition assistance under the BOLD Career Pathways Nursing Faculty Loan Program as part of this year's allocation in the state budget to combat the nursing shortage through higher education.
Program to help nursing faculty could help expand class sizes, enroll more nursing students
The BOLD program offers up to $90,000 of tuition reimbursement to potential nursing faculty members seeking a graduate degree. Commission on Higher Education Workforce Manager Dr. Corey Gheesling says having more faculty members can mean expanding nursing training programs.
"The goal is basically two fold," says Gheesling. "One to help fund faculty at institutions with the aim of both increasing their capacity to enroll potentially larger cohorts of nursing students. But also retaining their existing faculty and being more competitive in the hiring space."
The program previously only included students from public universities, but the expansion will allow those from private institutions to be eligible.
Hospitals battle nursing shortage
According to Celena Bearden, the Associate Chief Nursing Officer of Prisma Health, getting more nurses into the field starts with expanding nursing programs and recruiting more college grads.
“Tapping into the workforce at an earlier point," says Bearden. "Now we’re really even trying to look at the audience even before they go to college, in high school or whatever that looks like."
According to the Bureau of Health Workforce numbers, South Carolina could be short more than 10,000 nurses by 2030.
That can impact the number of extra beds they're able to open and how long patients have to wait, says Lexington Medical Center's Chief Nursing Officer, Melissa Taylor.
"You can’t have hospital services without nurses," said Taylor. "It certainly can lead to patients having to wait longer to get care. If we don’t have enough services, enough nurses in the hospitals then that certainly will impact our care.”