Michigan nurse shortage could get some relief through new Oakland University, BHSH program
More nurses could be coming to Michigan as BHSH System and Oakland University announced a new partnership Thursday to boost the number of nurses working in the state, filling a critical need.
BHSH System, the name of the merged Beaumont Health and Spectrum Health, will provide the university with more than $20 million during the next five years for the BHSH Beaumont Health Nurse Scholar program.
This will allow up to 500 additional students to pursue nursing at the university over the next five years.
More than $10 million will be for student grants while the other $10 million-plus will be for infrastructure, such as expanding a simulation lab and classroom space, purchasing instructional equipment and hiring faculty to teach additional course sections, according to the joint announcement.
It will take about a year to build the necessary infrastructure to accommodate the additional students, then the program can start to admit students, said Judy Didion, dean of the university's nursing school, during a call with reporters.
Nursing shortage a 'critical and complex challenge'
Grant recipients will be on a path to work for BHSH System for at least two years after they graduate. They are expected to be in southeast Michigan within Beaumont Health in a variety of placements that can include small and large community hospitals and academic hospitals.
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“The nursing shortage in our state is a critical and complex challenge that must be solved with bold and collaborative solutions,” said Tina Freese Decker, BHSH president and CEO. "We are incredibly excited about the impact the BHSH Beaumont Health Nurse Scholar program will have in health care and for our communities.”
Oakland University President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz said this "magnanimous gift directly responds to the need for more highly skilled nurses and the workforce shortage that has become more critical since the beginning of the COVID-19 global pandemic."
40,000 health care job openings in Michigan
Pescovitz said this will improve the quality and delivery of patient care in Michigan.
Michigan hospitals had more than 40,000 open health care positions based on responses to a February survey by the Michigan Health & Hospital Association, spokesman John Karasinski said. He said the association is in the process of requesting workforce data from its membership.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the nursing shortage nationally and in Michigan, and it's expected to continue because of retirements, an aging population and increased health care demand.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 194,500 average annual openings for registered nurses between 2020 and 2030, with employment projected to grow 9%, according to the American Nurses Association.
The university's nursing school educates BSN pre-licensure students through a traditional four-year BSN track and an accelerated second-degree track, which is over 16 months and is for students with a bachelor's degree in a different field who want to be registered nurses.
It admits 96 students into the traditional four-year program twice a year and 64 students into the accelerated program three times per year. It said it graduates about 350 BSN nurses each year.
Didion said the university will add a recruitment specialist to attract diverse students, and its career services will work with the nursing school to design a marketing strategy geared toward second-degree students working across industries.
The scholarships will be catered to each student and be based on the student's other scholarships and help to offset those, Didion said. The program's scholarships may not be for the full four years or 16 months necessarily, but the idea is for the students not to have a loan burden.
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan nurse shortage could get help as Oakland U, BHSH join forces
