eJane

If you’re a travel nurse who’s wondering about their career options in the future, you can rest assured that the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) is doing all they can to keep the nursing shortage going strong. The part about you always having job opportunities, that’s the good news. The bad news is that the University’s administrators and their attitudes seem to be feeding an environment of discontent among the faculty. You see, many of the teachers have either been “relieved” or quit, because of the University’s rigid teaching philosophy. The situation is bad enough that enrollment at UTMB has been restricted - with the lack of qualified teaching staff to blame. The philosophy has not gone over well with staff who have, up until recently, enjoyed an open academic atmosphere.

Now, you might say “big deal” this happens all over the place. True, maybe. But keep in mind that half of Texas’ 170,000 registered nurses will retire in the next ten years.

Add to this statistic a study performed by the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies that said between 52 and 54 percent of qualified nursing school applicants were turned away from the 88 nursing programs currently operating in the state. The primary reason for this? Teaching faculty shortages.

You might want to keep Texas on your short list of places to work as a travel nurse. I hear it’s nice all year round.

Read the whole story here.