The shortage of nurses in the United States is exacerbated by the shortage of nursing educators – how can you train the next generation of nurses without sufficient qualified teachers?  Susan Bakewell-Sachs, a member of ARCS Foundation Oregon, knows that firsthand as a professor and the Dean and Vice President for Nursing Affairs at Oregon Health & Science University. 

“A faculty shortage is one of the key factors that limits our capacity to educate,” she said recently on Oregon Public Broadcasting. “At OHSU, across our five campuses, we have been running just under about 12% vacancy rate,” she said.  

Bakewell-Sachs was a guest on OPB’s “Think Out Loud”, along with Joanne Noone, a professor at the OHSU School of Nursing. They shared details about a program to address the shortage of nursing faculty, made possible by a $4 million federal grant.  

OHSU is working to boost the ranks of nurse educators through its “Oregon Nursing Education Academy,” which aims to train 63 new faculty members and 92 new supervising clinicians. Nurses accepted to the academy will receive scholarships that cover most of the tuition. 

Bakewell-Sachs explained during the interview that the education academy is part “of a larger, more comprehensive focus on a variety of issues including enhancing the diversity and the numbers of historically underrepresented individuals into nursing.”  

You can read OPB’S “Think Out Loud” interview to learn what Bakewell-Sachs and Noone have to say about OHSU’s new nursing initiatives.  

https://www.opb.org/article/2022/12/02/new-ohsu-academy-aims-to-increase-nursing-faculty/ 

Historical facts about OHSU’s School of Nursing 

https://www.ohsu.edu/historical-collections-archives/school-nursing 

ARCS Foundation Oregon is proud to support PhD students at OHSU’s School of Nursing.