Dear ~INFORMAL~,

Today I have news to report about the world of nursing education. The NLN public policy research department is now completing its analysis of data from the annual survey for the school year 2005-2006. As always, there is great excitement when these findings come out. Although our survey is retrospective, it casts a wide lens on all our schools of nursing: Who are our graduates? How many are there? Will we finally begin to see the end of our nursing shortage crisis?

There is some very good news. The survey shows a marked increase in the percentage of graduating prelicensure students who are members of racial or ethnic minority groups. This increase is distributed across all racial and ethnic categories: Asians, African Americans, and Hispanics each gained roughly a 1 percent share of graduates while American Indians gained .3 percent. And colleagues, more men are finally coming to nursing. After falling off during the dot.com boom of the 1990s, the percentage of men graduating from basic RN programs has shown a small but steady growth trend for the past three years. In 2006, men represented just over 12.1 percent of our graduating students (13 percent in associate degree programs).

Are we out of the woods? Well, not quite. The number of graduations from prelicensure programs is up by 8.5 percent, which is good news indeed. But the number of new applications to all types of nursing education programs is falling — perhaps an indication that students understand how difficult it is to gain entry into America's schools of nursing. Baccalaureate programs turn away 20 percent of qualified applications, and associate degree programs turn away 32.7 percent! And we know that one of the primary reasons for this scenario is a crippling lack of nurse faculty.

The findings from the NLN survey will be published in detail in our upcoming book Nursing Data Review Academic Year 2005-2006. I can assure you that the policy makers in Washington will pour over its charts and tables, trying to gauge all implications for workforce trends in nursing. Our survey, after all, is critical. The NLN is the only organization that studies what is happening to the entire family of nursing education, encompassing baccalaureate, associate, and diploma degree programs.

As for next steps — we must remain vigilant about diversity. Let us continue to add members of minority groups to nursing, and let us make sure that many of them join our profession as teachers. We must encourage our students and mentor them as colleagues, promoting the leadership that is desperately needed to provide safe and quality health care for all.

Our next survey will be launched in March. Your school's participation is so important for nursing and the health of our nation. Thank you in advance for taking part and for all you do every day for our beloved profession.