(Radio Iowa) – Iowa faces a critical shortage of nurses and under the legislature’s proposed budget awaiting the governor’s signature, the University of Iowa nursing program would get nearly three-million dollars to hire more staff. Julie Zerwic, dean of U-I’s College of Nursing, says with the extra funding, they’ll launch a program where people who hold a master’s degree in another field will be able to graduate with a Master’s in Nursing in just 20 months. “We believe that that’s a critical new program. We don’t have one like that here in Iowa,” Zerwic says. “That program will graduate 48 new nurses when we’re at capacity.” Zerwic says by hiring additional faculty, the program on the Iowa City campus will be able to increase admissions.

“One of the problems is that we have more individuals who are interested in coming into nursing than we are able to actually admit,” she says. Studies show Iowa hospitals will be short hundreds of nurses in the coming few years, due in large part to retirements and nurses quitting due to burnout.

Zerwic made her comments on the Iowa Public Radio program “River to River.”

(by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)