California University of Pennsylvania Offers Master’s Degree in Nursing Education

With a shortage of registered nurses (RNs) increasing nationwide, the California University of Pennsylvania (Cal U) has begun offering a master of science degree in nursing education to increase the number of faculty available to help train the next generation of nurses.

As RNs continue to get older and retire younger than previous generations, combined with a rise in number of patients and severity of illness, RNs and other healthcare professionals are in strong demand. Students in some health care programs are almost guaranteed jobs after graduation because of the demand for nurses, but there is a lack of nursing educators available to train nurses at the college level.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) released an October 2016 report stating that there were more than 1,500 jobs available for faculty at nursing schools and a need for 133 more to meet today’s demand. Mary O’Connor, program coordinator and professor at California University of Pennsylvania, tells BizJournals.com, “We’re hoping to address the shortage to create faculty for schools of nursing and well-prepared educators to teach in hospitals.”

The creation of the nursing education program was sparked by Cal U’s nursing advisory board who want to help prepare more advanced practice nurses to teach new nurses. The shortage is so severe at some nursing schools that nursing programs have been forced to leave spots for nursing students unfilled because there aren’t enough professors to teach them.

Cal U’s nursing education program is 100 percent online, preparing graduates to instruct nurses in academic or healthcare settings. Students will learn how to develop, implement, and evaluate nursing education programs and curricula during the 36-credit, two-year program.