New majors could fix nurse shortage

UC Irvine’s new nursing science director would like to see UCI offer a master’s degree for nurses and possibly create new majors in cooperation with other schools.

Ellen Olshansky took over UCI’s 1-year-old nursing school on Wednesday.

She stressed the importance of producing more nursing students to fix the state’s nurse shortage.

“California is desperate for nurses,” said Rick Martin, senior vice president of patient care and services at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian. “We rank last in nurses per 100,000 people in the country.”

The dearth of nurses has had an impact on patient care in California, Martin said.

With fewer nurses, there are few surgeries performed and fewer beds open, he said.

“We just have to get out there,” Olshansky said. “In the past it was not viewed as the most ideal profession, but there are so many ways to go with the degree.”

About half of the state’s nurses — mostly patient care nurses — come from schools out of state, she said.

UCI’s nursing program is the first in Orange County to offer a four-year bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Olshansky thinks she can get more students interested in nursing and the health-care field in general by introducing combination majors with the help of other schools at the university.

She mentioned working with the new law school, which is scheduled to open in 2009, to create a forensic health major for students.

Olshansky hails from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was a professor and the chairwoman of the department of health and community systems in the school of nursing. She has more than 30 years experience in nursing as an administrator, educator, researcher and practitioner. She is also a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

“We plan on really working with all the hospitals in the area,” Olshansky said. “They want to work with us.”

Though Hoag Hospital has enough nurses, Martin also said they have and will continue to work to help give nursing students valuable on-the-job experience. He said there are 125,000 positions new California nurses could fill.