University Of Oklahoma Announces Initiative To Address State's Nursing Shortage

The University of Oklahoma says it has a plan to help solve Oklahoma’s nursing shortage.

Currently, Oklahoma ranks 46th in the nation when it comes to the number of nurses per capita.

Through this new initiative, OU is hoping to change that.

State and health leaders, including Gov. Kevin Stitt and OU President Joseph Harroz, announced the details at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning at the state Capitol.

At some points last year, Oklahoma got down to 11 nurses per 1000 people.

Some hospitals, like OU Health, had nurse vacancy rates as high as 19%.

One of the biggest reasons for this shortage is due to effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Different hospitals across the state have tried offering incentives to keep current nurses or bring new ones on, which included sign on bonuses and nursing degree acceleration programs.

This new initiative, through the University of Oklahoma's Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing, will hopefully help directly support the critical need for nurses across our state.

In the press conference, they unveiled details on their initiative to help with the nursing shortage being experienced across the state.

In order to help with the nursing shortage, OU's College of Nursing will be doubling their enrollment for this upcoming fall semester.

For this year's upcoming class, the university has admitted all 555 qualified applicants, that's compared to 225 from last year.

OU says moving forward, the university will admit all qualified applicants to both its traditional BSN program and the accelerated program.

"We had to find a way to provide more nurses to heal more people or there would be catastrophic consequences," said OU President Joseph Harroz.

Now to support this initiative, the university will use funds generated through the sales tax exemption for the University Hospital Authority and Trust, which is a new state law passed during last year's legislative session.

They also plan to use internal university resources, which includes donor support.

Oklahoma is currently ranked 46th in nation when it comes to the number of nurses per capita.

The Oklahoma Nurses Association says the state has 712 nurses per 100 thousand residents.