"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." (1)

Full funding for the MNC would total $45 million, $15 million per year for three years. In the Fiscal Year 2008 State budget, the Legislature approved $1.5 million, funding that will seed MNC programs.

In her 2008 State of the State address, the Governor reinforced the importance of nursing and submitted an FY 2009 budget that includes $10 million for a strong start on MNC programs. The MNC is a collaborative effort by two State agencies, Community Health (MDCH) and Labor & Economic Growth (MDLEG).

The Problem

There is a growing nursing shortage in Michigan and the United States. Michigan's nursing education programs are bottlenecked in their ability to admit, educate and graduate all qualified applicants. Nursing education programs do not have enough classroom faculty, clinical faculty, or clinical experience infrastructure and sites to educate all the qualified people who want to become nurses. At the same time, our population is aging and will need much more health care in the  future. The retirement of the "Baby Boom" generation has just begun.

§         Michigan is expected to have a shortage of about 7000 Registered Nurses by 2010 and a shortage of 18,000 RN's by 2015 (2)

§         In 2007, Michigan nursing education programs turned away over 4,000 qualified applicants due to the programs' lack of capacity

§         More than 50% of faculty at most Michigan nursing schools/colleges are eligible to retire today

§         Nursing students often wait many months to get the clinical experience they need to graduate and enter the workforce.

The Solution

The Michigan Nursing Corps will provide new classroom faculty, clinical faculty, and clinical experience infrastructure and sites. These new resources will help to educate additional RN's each year to take care of Michigan citizens. At full funding, the MNC would add from 1,000 to 3,000 RN's per year to the Michigan nursing workforce.

The Process

The first components of the MNC will be implemented through a Request for Proposals process. This competitive process will select individuals and institutions to participate in one of three MNC model programs.

Eligibility

§         Nurses in the last two years of a doctoral degree in Nursing will be eligible to receive financial support to complete their degree full-time.

§         Nurses with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing (BSN) will be eligible to receive financial support to complete an accelerated one-year Master's degree in Nursing Education (MNE).

§         Other practicing BSN nurses will be eligible to complete a clinical instructor certification course with Master's degree credits.

§         Funded partnerships between selected nursing schools/colleges and hospitals will increase clinical experience infrastructure and sites available for nursing students' use.

Increase in Capacity

§         In exchange for the financial support, the doctoral and MNE degree graduates will sign contracts to teach in Michigan nursing education programs for at least five years.

§         Each new clinical instructor will supervise clinical experiences for about fifteen nursing students per year.

§         The new clinical experience infrastructure and sites will permit nursing students to complete their education in a timely way and enter the nursing workforce.

The Outcome

With full funding, the three-year Michigan Nursing Corps initiative would result in 30 new doctoral and 300 new MNE-prepared nursing classroom faculty, each of whom contracts to teach in Michigan for five years.

§         Each new MNE graduate would enable a nursing education program to increase admissions by 10 students per year.

§         Assuming that most of the 300 new MNE faculty remain in nursing education beyond the contracted 5 years, an estimated 19,800 new seats would open up in Michigan nursing education programs over 8-10 years. (3)

§         These additional nursing students would receive clinical experience supervision from 300 new clinical instructors, using expanded clinical sites and infrastructure (learning laboratories - some mobile -- with simulations and virtual experience).

At lower funding levels for the MNC, the capacity expansion for each new MNE is 10 nursing education seats per year for the five contracted years and each additional year the MNE continues to teach. The new doctoral and MNE faculty will meet the immediate need for additional nursing classroom faculty and, in years to come, will replace the large numbers of nursing faculty who will be retiring. The MNC is both a short-term and long-term investment in assuring a constant supply of high quality nurses for Michigan.

The Cost and Return on Investment

At full funding, the MNC will cost a total of $45 million over three years.

§         Each of the resulting 19,800 new nurses will bring $120,000 per year into their community (salary, fringes, and other economic benefits). (4)

§         Over a 20-year career, each nurse is estimated to bring over $3.9 million in benefit to the Michigan economy.

§         The 19,800 new nurses educated through the fully- funded MNC would bring $78.6 billion in economic benefit to Michigan over the next twenty years, for a return (on the $45 million investment) of $1,746 per dollar invested, or $87 per year per dollar invested.

Michigan needs to make this investment to improve the physical and economic health of its citizens and communities. For more information, please contact:

Jeanette Klemczak, Chief Nurse Executive

Michigan Department of Community Health

(517) 241-9841, klemczakj@michigan.gov