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At the Tuesday, April 10 meeting of the General Student Senate, a resolution was passed to support additional funding for the school of nursing.
Vice President of Student Affairs Matthew Bennett, who sponsored of this resolution, said that the lack of money for the nursing program “would not only affect our own state’s nursing shortage, but it would also impact the “brain drain” that the state of Maine is so worried about. Students who wish to be nurses will have less in-state options, and be forced to go elsewhere for education.”
According to the resolution, which passed without debate, “The School of Nursing needs adequate funding, which they currently do not receive, in order to increase faculty and clerical positions to meet the needs of present students and increase the number of students spaces in the program.”
This resolution will not directly give funding to the school, but rather asks that the president, provost and chief financial officer increase funding for the school.
Edna Szymanksi, senior vice-president and provost for UMaine, issued a statement in response, stating “we are currently working our way through the complex budgeting process for fiscal year 2008, and it is too early to predict the outcomes of that process – we are aware of significant needs in several academic areas, which we must balance with the challenges that exist on the revenue side of the ledger. Students who wish to help improve the budget situation should contact their legislators and other state leaders to make a case for increased state support for UMaine.
“The school of nursing needs approximately $1 million added to the current budget in order to meet the basic needs of the program. These additional monies would be used to hire between six and seven faculty and also improve our labs which are currently in desperate shape,” according to records of correspondence and budgetary information in the School of Nursing.
“Their equipment is so old that people are injecting hot dogs to learn how to inject needles into people rather than injecting dummies,” said Senator Ashley Wozneak, explaining that today’s technology can allow nursing students to practice needlework on dummies that react in humanlike ways.
“They can’t afford enough needles, they’re taught not to recap the needles after injecting them [hot dogs]. When somebody was at their clinical they injected somebody with a needle and didn’t put the cap on it the way that you’re supposed to when you’re working at a hospital. It wasn’t her fault because she had been taught to not do that because we can’t afford to give the nursing program enough where they can afford sufficient supplies,” Wozneak said.
The nursing program is concerned that their highly acclaimed school is no longer up-to-date.
“I really thought it would be a good idea to give nursing more money, because I would prefer that somebody be injecting me with a needle who hadn’t previously injected a hot dog.” Wozneak said.
Another major issue that the nursing program is having is the lack of professionals teaching the classes.
“Currently there are a lot of ‘clinical associates’ teaching in our program. These are registered nurses who teach one or two sections of a clinical experience or laboratory program. While they are excellent teachers as well as nurses, it puts an increasing stress on the few full-time faculty we have. The faculty have more to monitor, and it also creates inconsistencies from teacher to teacher. It is estimated that we have clinical associates doing the work of 10.5 faculty positions,” according to Bennett’s reports.
The reports also state that “The recommended faculty to student ratio for nursing is between 1:8 and 1:12. We are currently at 1:18, as a generous estimate.”
The meeting also benefited Amnesty International when the GSS allocated $730 for registration and motor pool fees for a conference in New York, and the International Students’ Association was allocated $300 for a barbeque.
