San Diego State University (SDSU) plans to introduce a three year doctorate degree for Physical Therapist and Nurse Practitioner Programs. These professionals are desperately needed to relive a shortage of 59,000 nurses in California. This will make SDSU the only university in the state with such a doctorate program for nurses and physical therapists. Some believe this will still not be enough to relive an increasing shortage of nurses that will be compounded by a growing aging population.
The Board of Registered Nurses has advised that one cause for the nursing shortage is the result of a lack of qualified nursing professors. Without adequate nursing faculty to educate new health care professionals it is impossible for nurse practitioner schools to add extra undergraduate nursing programs. These programs are essential to educate the up and coming new generation of nurses to fill the mounting shortage. Nurses who graduate from the three year doctorate program will be able to teach at universities as well as work as a qualified practitioner.
The shortage of nurses and physical therapist is predicted to worsen in the future as a result of the aging population according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. They predict the need for physical therapists to increase by thirty percent in the next decade. There are fears this demand will not be able to be met with the current programs available in California. There is no doctorate program for physical therapists at SDSU at present.
These two new doctorate programs will be started in fall of 2012 and it is hoped the graduates will help to fill the need for professors in new nursing courses which are desperately needed to relieve an ever increasing shortage.
