What is the Michigan Nursing Corps?

Excerpt from Governor Granholm's State of the State on the Nursing shortage, February 7, 2007:

"One area that demands our special attention is nursing. Today we have a nursing shortage in communities across our state. Yet we have waiting lists of people who are anxious to become nurses. Something's wrong with this picture, and we are going to fix it. Tonight we are launching the Michigan Nursing Corps, an initiative to train new nurses. We will prepare 500 nursing educators to train 3,000 new nurses in just three years."

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The Problem

Michigan's nursing education programs are bottlenecked in their ability to admit, educate and graduate all qualified applicants.

FACT
Michigan will be 7,000 RN's short by 2010 and 18,000 RN's short by 2015

FACT
In 2005, Michigan nursing education programs turned away over 2000 qualified applicants

The Solution

The Michigan Nursing Corps will provide new classroom faculty and clinical faculty who will, in turn, be able to produce over 3000 additional RN's to serve Michigan citizens.

The initiative will take place over a three-year period.

The Cost

The program will cost $45 million over three years. Nurses receive financial support for their education and, in return, they sign contracts to teach in Michigan nursing education programs.

The Outcome

Michigan will have sufficient nursing faculty to prepare the number of nurses needed to care for Michigan citizens as they age and require significantly more health care. They will also be able to replace the large numbers of nursing faculty who are and will be retiring.

FACT
More than 50% of faculty at most Michigan nursing schools are eligible to retire today.

The Return on Investment

For every $1 of the $45 million invested, Michigan's communities will receive $162 of economic value.

FACT
Each RN in Michigan brings $75,000 of economic value annually to the community (salary and benefits).

FACT
Each year RN's contribute $10.5 billion to Michigan and local economies.

The Funding

There are no current state funds for the Michigan Nursing Corps (MNC). The MNC funding will only be possible if there are new state revenues. The Governor's service tax (2 cents proposal, if passed, could provide funding for the Michigan Nursing Corps.

For more information contact:

Jeanette Klemczak, RN, BSN, MSN
MDCH, Chief Nurse Executive
Capitol View Building, 7th Floor
201 Townsend Street
Lansing, MI. 48913
(517) 241-9841 klemczakj@michigan.gov