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Gov.
Perry signs nursing shortage bill at TWU’s Dallas-Parkland
Center
8/28/09
Photo credit: Shannon Drawe
Cutline:
Gov. Perry ceremonially signs the Professional Nursing Shortage
Bill at TWU’s Dallas-Parkland center on Thursday, Aug.
27. Shown with Gov. Perry and TWU nursing students are, from
left: TWU Student Regent Rae Lynn McFarlin, TWU Chancellor
Ann Stuart and State Rep. Myra Crownover (R-Lake Dallas).
August 28, 2009 – DALLAS – Gov. Rick Perry ceremonially
signed House Bill 4471, which improves the Professional Nursing
Shortage Reduction Program by increasing funding and providing
incentives for nursing programs to enroll and graduate more
nurses, at Texas Woman’s University’s Dallas-Parkland
center on Thursday, Aug. 27.
As Texas and the
nation face a critical shortage of nurses and healthcare providers,
lack of faculty to train new nurses is a factor that often
is overlooked. Just one new nursing faculty member can help
produce up to 25 new nurses. HB 4471 provides up-front funding
so that TWU and other Texas universities can hire more nursing
faculty.
“We need
more qualified nurses graduating in Texas, and House Bill
4471 accelerates us toward that goal,” Gov. Perry said.
“This bill is an important investment in the future
of health care in our state, and I am proud to have worked
with our Legislature to address the nursing shortage in Texas.”
HB 4471 improves
the Professional Nursing Shortage Reduction Program, which
was established in 2001, to help stem the shortage of nurses
in Texas. The bill rewards high-performing nursing programs
with up-front money to hire additional nursing faculty. This
session the Legislature appropriated $49.7 million to the
Professional Nursing Shortage Reduction Program for 2010-2011,
a $35 million increase over 2008-2009.
“Gov. Perry
has continuously worked to improve the state of education
in Texas as a way to enhance the quality of life and strengthen
our workforce,” TWU Chancellor Ann Stuart said. “As
the largest college of nursing in Texas, TWU appreciates the
opportunity to receive this up-front funding so we can hire
more faculty, thus increasing nursing enrollment and graduates.”
TWU’s College
of Nursing is eligible to receive the largest amount of funding
from this program due to the university’s high nursing
graduation rates and enrollment.
“One of the
factors contributing to the state and national nursing shortage
is the lack of qualified faculty available to educate students
who want to become nurses,” said Dr. Pat Holden-Huchton,
dean of the TWU College of Nursing. “These funds will
allow TWU to help address this shortage by increasing our
ability to attract highly-qualified faculty in order to graduate
more new nurses to serve the citizens of Texas.”
Texas nursing schools
graduated more than 7,600 new registered nurses in 2008, a
69.7 percent increase over 2001. Despite these gains, Texas
nursing schools will not produce a sufficient number of nurses
to meet the health care needs of Texans through 2020, according
to the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies. Nursing
schools often cite the lack of faculty as the biggest barrier
to enrolling more students.
With more than 2,500 nursing students at its Denton, Dallas
and Houston campuses, TWU has the largest College of Nursing
program in the state and one of the largest graduate nursing
programs in the country. For more information, visit www.twu.edu/nursing.
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Media
Contact:
Amanda Simpson
Director of News and Information
Tel: (940) 898-3456
e-mail: asimpson1@twu.edu
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