May 2, 2013

Al Rundio, PhD, DNP, a clinical professor of nursing and Associate Dean for Post Licensure Nursing Programs, was interviewed for an Advance for Nurses article about universities’ struggles to find enough qualified nursing faculty. "There was a lot of attention being paid to the [presidential] election," Rundio began, "With the president being re-elected, the focus now is on the effects of the Affordable Care Act and the increase in insured people under the plan.” In response to the fact that the aging population and more insured individuals will require a larger workforce of nurses, student enrollment in nursing programs is increasing nationwide.

Advance journalist Jonathan Bassett extolled Drexel’s creative responses to this increase, writing, “A portfolio of traditional and online formats are designed to embrace the expected wave of students looking to enter healthcare - particularly nursing.”

While Drexel doesn’t currently have a critical need for faculty, the article gives some examples of universities that do. Bassett cites statistics from American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) stating that “U.S. nursing schools turned away 75,587 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2011, due to an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors and budget constraints. Almost two-thirds of the nursing schools cited faculty shortages for not accepting all qualified applicants into their baccalaureate programs.”