George Tuley/Caller-Times Houston native Teresa Bowen, who began working as a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Driscoll Children’s Hospital after graduating from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, said a personal experience led her to pursue nursing. ‘My brother was hospitalized ... and I saw all the nurses that took care of him, and that’s what I wanted to do,’ she said. Click to enlarge graphic

Hospitals fight nurse shortage with bonuses, early education

Statistics show that nationwide, there will be only 635,000 nurses to fill 1.8 million RN positions by 2010

February 1, 2003
By Cassandra Hinojosa
Caller-Times

Like many local nurses, Kendra Adkins took classes such as anatomy, physiological chemistry, microbiology and pharmacology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi to help prepare her for a career in nursing.

Adkins, a 1997 Tuloso-Midway High School graduate, chose the field because she wanted direct interaction with hospital patients. "Nurses get to know the patient," said Adkins, 23. "It takes a team player and someone that is willing to - be a patient advocate when needed. It’s a very ."

But the Corpus Christi native, who works at Doctors Regional and Bay Area, knows the Coastal Bend has not escaped the nationwide nursing shortage, which sometimes has led to sign-on bonuses as a recruiting measure.

According to a November 2002 report from the Coastal Bend Nursing Consortium, nurse vacancies in certain specialized areas are as high as 20 percent.

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While sign-on bonuses range between $2,500 and $5,000, they aren’t awarded as frequently as in the past, and hospital administrators are trying to find ways to keep nurses, many of whom have numerous years of experience. The base hourly salary for a registered nurse in the area is $16 to $17.

Melonie Kelley, chief nursing officer for Corpus Christi Medical Center, is confident that local efforts are starting to make a big difference in overcoming the shortage.

"Over the next two, four, 10 years - I feel we’ll have enough nurses - because of the efforts that are being spent today," she said.

Because Adkins graduated from A&M-Corpus Christi and works in a local hospital, she is a prime example of a "homegrown" nurse whom local health officials want to keep in the area.

Keeping locally educated nurses in the area is one of the ways hospitals, colleges and other organizations have pulled together to help remedy the Coastal Bend nursing shortage. The Board of Nurse Examiners reported 2,256 working registered nurses in Nueces County, according to figures released in September 2002.

Temporary nursing shortages began in the 1970s, and past problems were solved with hiring foreign nurses, said Dr. Juan F. Castro, director of the Coastal Bend Health Education Center and president-elect of the Nueces County Medical Society.

"What is so serious about the present shortage is that we don’t see a relief coming up," he said. Many women baby-boomers once had only two career choices: teaching or nursing. But now women can choose from a multitude of different careers.

And nurses are spending less time in the career because they are finding higher paying jobs as administrative supervisors. In addition, fewer nurses are caring for even more patients than before, making their jobs even more stressful, Castro said.

The national statistics aren’t comforting. The average age for a nurse is 46, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and by 2010 there will be only 635,000 nurses to fill 1.8 million registered nurse positions.

"If we keep this rate for the next 10 years and we don’t graduate nurses, there will be more nurses retiring than graduating," Castro said. "We need to encourage the - career at a young age."

Curing the nurse void
While sign-on bonuses still are used to lure new graduates, creating educational and advancement opportunities is the focus, said Julia Henion, vice president and chief nursing officer of Driscoll Children’s Hospital.

But graduating nurses and available online classes won’t cure the local nurse void, Henion said.

"I think we do have to look beyond Corpus Christi and the region for our nurses," she said. Currently, most of the hospital’s nurses come from local colleges, and 5 percent are foreign.

Generating interest in nursing definitely needs to begin before college, health officials and educators say.

Future Nurses Clubs began forming locally in 2001 to assist in providing opportunities in nursing. Clubs have started up at high schools including King, Flour Bluff, Moody and also in Kingsville. Club organizers are hoping to start a club for Tuloso-Midway High School in January.

"Our plan is to have more future nurses clubs," said Lois Koester, coordinator of nursing and allied health programs for Coastal Bend Health Education Center.

Enrollment increases
Local nursing professors have even visited elementary schools to introduce nursing as a career option.

In the past year, Del Mar College has experienced an enrollment increase of nursing students, from 269 enrolled in fall 2001 to 344 students in fall 2002, said Dr. Blanca Rosa Garcia, professor and chairwoman of Del Mar’s department of registered nursing. And of those 344 students, 58 percent are minorities, and 53 students are men.

"We see a lot of people from the same family - lots of sisters and mother and daughters," she said. "We have calculated that about 92 percent of our graduates expect to stay in the Coastal Bend area."

The number of nursing students at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi has risen from about 350 to 500 in the past two years, according to Dr. Mary Jane Hamilton, director of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi school of nursing and health science. And about 20 percent of the students have been male.

"It has been to our advantage," Hamilton said. "That’s not the case all over country."

But although the program is full, Hamilton says more nurses and nursing professors are needed.

"The (average) age of professors is between 55 and 57," she said.

Couple shares career
Richard Garcia held a flexible work schedule as a licensed vocational nurse at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial while he went through Del Mar College’s RN program. Garcia, who graduated in December, had already signed a two-year contract with the hospital and has received a total sign-on bonus of $7,000. His hourly pay will rise by nearly $5 per hour.

"It only helps us to continue our education - to move from an LVN to an RN," said Garcia, 35, who works on the medical surgical floor. "They provide a lot of tools and opportunities for you to continue your education."

Garcia was a correctional officer before he found his calling as a nurse. He learned about the field from his wife who graduated from Del Mar’s nursing program 10 years ago.

Christus Spohn Health Systems, Driscoll Children’s Hospital and Corpus Christi Medical Center are keeping nurses with competitive pay and benefits, professional training, flexible schedules and management training. The hospitals have partnerships with different high schools and are working closely with both colleges.

After graduating from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Houston native Teresa Bowen began working at Driscoll Children’s Hospital, but it wasn’t for the money.

Bowen, 26, planned to study chemical engineering until her brother was seriously injured in a sporting accident.

"My brother was hospitalized - and I saw all the nurses that took care of him, and that’s what I wanted to do," she said.

Contact Cassandra Hinojosa at 886-3617 or hinojosac@caller.com