Nursing’s new faces: Older, wiser and (quite possibly) better

Martin Duru is a new face in nursing: 48, a former mortgage broker and already with a family of his own.

Mid-career professionals like Duru are expected to change nursing, thanks to the expansion of accelerated programs meant for people who already have bachelor’s degrees.

These programs are growing rapidly through an infusion of financial aid and a belief that older students are often better than their younger peers. Accelerated graduates may also be the ideal choices to address the so-called “other” nursing shortage: a lack of nurse educators.

It’s an ideal time to grow accelerated nursing, too, as thousands of degreed professionals in the American workforce lose their jobs, quite possibly never to return to their chosen professions.

“We know what we’re here for, as opposed to traditional students who are still feeling their way around,” said Duru, who is in the accelerated program at Kent State University’s College of Nursing.

Accelerated programs have grown nationwide, including at Kent State, which expects to add another 30 accelerated slots this year while holding enrollment steady in its larger, traditional nursing program. Accelerated programs generally strip away the electives of a typical four-year nursing degree, focusing solely on nursing classes and crunching the classes into a shorter, more intense period.

At least one nursing school, the University of Rochester, has made accelerated students the focus of its program.

The approach got a boost last year when the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced it would fund 1,500 scholarships for accelerated students over the next three years.

The scholarship program wants to cut the shortage of nurses and the shortage of nursing faculty. There’s a nearly 8 percent faculty vacancy rate nationwide, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). The last report from the Northeast Ohio Nursing Initiative said more than 32,000 students were turned away because of a lack of faculty.

Nurses who enter the profession with a bachelor’s degree are four times as likely to pursue a graduate degree, which is required to teach, according to the AACN. Graduates of accelerated programs also move faster into management positions and speciality nursing jobs, pass nursing licensing exams faster, and are rarely satisfied with the status quo, according to nurse educators.

“We see future leaders in the profession,” said Vernell DeWitty, who oversees the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program for the AACN.

Financial aid is key to growing these programs, according to nursing school officials. Paying for school is tough for everyone. But older students may already have families, housing payments and other financial responsibilities that traditional college students don’t have. Plus, older students aren’t eligible for as much financial aid as traditional students.

Duru, who was one of the first recipients of a Robert Wood Foundation scholarship, is a testimony to that. He and his wife live in Columbus and are raising 5- and 2-year-old daughters. He also has two daughters from a previous marriage.

He left his job as a mortgage broker because he wanted to pursuing nursing as a career. To prepare for the transition from a two-income household to a one-income, they sold two good cars for a “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” clunker, sold their home to move into an apartment closer to his wife’s job, cut off their home phone and bought Christmas gifts only for their children, he said. During school, Duru lives in a small apartment in Kent.

“The biggest obstacle we faced – it wasn’t the desire,” Duru said. “The finances were a big hoopla.”

Some of the expectations for accelerated nurses are far from sure, however. Most of the success stories about accelerated programs are anecdotal, said Pamela Cangelosi, an associate professor of nursing at George Mason University.

“There’s so little research on this,” said Cangelosi, who has published some initial studies on accelerated programs.

Because they are older, accelerated students won’t spend as many years in the workforce as younger, traditional students. While Cangelosi says accelerated nursing students are much more driven and focused when they begin their nursing careers – employers love them, she said – they don’t begin with the same confidence in clinical settings as traditional nursing students do.

“The big question is: are they going to stay in nursing?” Cangelosi said. “Some wonder, do they have a lifetime of changing careers?”

Duru is a reflection of this career dichotomy. He isn’t interested in teaching, but he has other career options mapped out. If he stays at a hospital, he says he’ll want to get into management. But he’s also considering starting his own home health-care business.

He  likes the job security in nursing.

“It’s a career you can do until your 98,” Duru said. “As long as you can walk and get your license, you can do it.”