Governor can cure sick nursing school system by signing bill

California’s nursing shortage could be reduced if the governor signs a bill to allow the California State University system to offer a doctorate in nursing.

The measure has been working its way through the Legislature for a year, and finally was approved by the Senate on Tuesday.

Over the next 10 years, the nursing shortage in California is expected to hit 116,000, and that is a huge threat to the quality of health care.
Nurses are at the heart of modern medicine, and the system would
collapse without enough nurses.

The state’s nursing schools aren’t graduating enough nurses for many reasons. A primary one is a lack of faculty members. Nursing programs
must have a low student-faculty ratio, so the only way to create more
nursing slots is to add faculty members.

AB 867 would allow three CSU campuses to begin pilot programs offering a doctorate of nursing practice. Eighteen of the CSU’s 23 campuses,
including Stanislaus, offer nursing programs. It isn’t yet clear which
three would begin offering doctorates, and our support for this bill is
not predicated on Stanislaus being one of those three.

It makes sense for the whole state to graduate more qualified nurses rather than to continue to have to import them from other states and
countries.

The San Joaquin Valley, which has long had a shortage of key health professionals, including doctors and nurses, would especially benefit
from this bill. Long-term, we still advocate a medical school at the
University of California at Merced.

But this will would provide more immediate help. Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Livingston, was a principal co-author of this bill, which
was supported by all of our legislators — Assemblymen Bill Berryhill and
Tom Berryhill and Sens. Dave Cogdill and Jeff Denham.