Nursing Programs Grow in Santa Barbara

City College and Westmont College Plan for Expanded RN Programs

Undergraduates in class at the Westmont College Downtown Grotenhuis Nursing Program, which offers an accelerated bachelor's of science in nursing degree | Credit: Courtesy

When too few nurses staff hospitals, patients are observed to suffer higher rates of severe infection, urinary tract infections, and readmission for care. Conversely, when nurse staffing is high, the risk of hospital-related death decreases, as does the length of patient stays. Alongside the numerous studies relating these facts are the nurses suffering from burnout and illness — an employment risk that came into high profile during the pandemic — a consequence of nursing shortages over the years, not only in medical settings but also in higher education instruction.

Back in June 2020, the Santa Barbara and Goleta regions were recorded as Registered Nurse Shortage Areas by health-care information agencies, with 1,464 employed RNs. This was about 519 nurses under a target level based on population. The severity is considered “medium,” a level shared by Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo, which had 779 too few nurses.

For some perspective, the total supply of nurses in the nation dropped by more than 100,000 from 2020 to 2021, the largest drop to occur in a single year over the last four decades.

The pandemic was not the sole contributor to the lack of nurses, according to a Center for American Progress survey in 2022 of nursing professionals. The aging workforce is another factor, as the retirement years approach for 23 percent of nurses nationwide.

“Nurses on the fence opted to go because they were burnt out,” recalled Mary Sullivan, who directs the Associate Degree Nursing Program at SBCC. And those retirements caused issues in the classroom. “We had challenges with faculty shortages and not being able to expand our program,” Sullivan said.

Mary Sullivan, director of the Associate Degree Nursing Program at Santa Barbara City College, surrounded by members of her teaching staff | Credit: Courtesy

In Santa Barbara, partnerships between local institutions and Cottage Health have provided more doorways into the indispensable field. Nursing education programs at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) and Westmont College have graduated dozens of registered nurses (RNs) and licensed vocational nurses (LVNs), yet the history of a lack of instructors can still restrict points of entry.

Due to an insufficient number of classroom facilities, including space and teaching faculty, nursing schools in the U.S. turned away over 65,000 qualified applicants in 2023. Recuperating from the blow to staff starts with education, say medical professionals.

“We have to be able to come together. The pipeline for training is at the top of the mind,” said Laura Canfield, chief nursing officer for Santa Barbara Cottage Health. “As of now, we are not experiencing the crisis-level nursing staff shortages reported by other hospitals across the country,” she said. The Cottage hospitals have 4,585 employees, 1,285 of whom are RNs. At the same time, the Cottage Health job portal is recruiting 65-70 nursing positions.

Cottage Health began a number of programs when the shortage was forecast years ago, including regional academic partnerships, scholarships, and tuition assistance. Pay for new graduates typically starts at $53 per hour, including an employee health plan, housing assistance, childcare, and retirement savings. Canfield said Cottage’s RN turnover rate was 11 percent last year, which is lower than the Southern California benchmark at 13.5 percent.

Westmont College’s graduates from the ABSN program | Credit: Courtesy

She credited the educational connections between Cottage and the nursing programs at the local institutions. “We’re long-term partners and we couldn’t do it without them,” said Canfield.

“We work very well together because we all have the same goal,” added Di Hoffman, director of the Downtown Grotenhuis Nursing Program at Westmont College. “You have to be especially passionate about educating nurses for the long haul. It’s almost like a 24/7 job where there’s a lot of pressure to be successful.”

Further, a report by nurse educators found that among nursing teachers, low salaries were the chief cause of the teaching shortage. The annual mean wage for nursing instructors in California as of May 2023 was $94,530, the highest tier for instructor payment in the country. On the other hand, nursing practitioners and nursing midwives with similar postsecondary college credentials had mean wages of $161,540 and $183,740 respectively in California.

Irene Neller, VP of enrollment at Westmont, has been involved in widening the 16-month bachelor’s in nursing program. The program expanded from fall and spring enrollment to add a third period in May, which added 24 more slots. The college is also launching an additional 4.5-year program that provides both a bachelor’s in a subject of interest and a BSN, an additional bachelor’s degree in nursing, for students straight out of high school in the hope of attracting a wider population.

The program received more than 200 applications last cycle, in which students ranged in age from early twenties to others enrolling after 20 years of a professional career. Westmont organized its program after Cottage reached out for support in January 2022. They garnered $7 million-$12 million raised from local community donations, a majority from the Grotenhuis Pediatric Clinic and Lady Ridley-Tree. The program continues to grow, with plans to add seven teachers to the current complement of 16.

On a similar note at SBCC, Sullivan said the nursing program averages 200 applications every cycle, but only has 36 openings for RN students every spring and 10 for LVN candidates in the fall. “I have to hire, train, and educate more teachers to continue to offer a quality nursing program,” said Sullivan, who hopes to eventually expand the space of the program after bringing on 10 new part-time faculty. She’s applied for a grant, utilizing statistics from Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) data, that would allow nurses with associate’s degrees and one year of experience to teach as assistant instructors with more funding for resources such as salaries. After two years of instruction while taking classes and gaining more experience in the position, SBCC could hire them to fill a full instructor position once they achieve their BSN.

So far, everybody who graduated from the last cohort passed their exams, which Sullivan hopes to repeat in greater numbers. “I‘m proud of my faculty and staff,” said Sullivan.