rntoday.com

Threatening to keep Gov. Napolitano's from fulfilling her commitment to increase Arizona's number of Nurses. ASU has announced it plans to reduce the enrollment due to a shortfall in state funding. Bad news for healthcare and Nursing in general. The cuts will not just mean less Nurses being employed, faculty job loss is estimated to be up to 200 or more.
This disturbing trend being seen Nation wide. As the current population ages, health care becoming harder to administer hampered by budget's that have become strained. It also highlights the disturbing statistics of poor Nurse to patient ratios, a deficit that is rising at an alarming rate. Arizona's Nurse to patient rate is far below the national average of 825 per 100,000 already according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Arizona has just 600 Nurses per 100,000.

Larger classes have been considered but for now dismissed as a solution. Some of the smaller classes will be increased but no lecture type class room to accommodate large numbers of Students have been agreed to. According to officials Nursing was targeted at ASU because it is one of the more expensive programs to administer.

ASU's Nursing program is the largest in the United States. ASU Provost Elizabeth Capaldi said that she hopes the reduced enrollments and cuts in the program will be temporary. We do too.