Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Air Force offers new program to reduce critical nursing shortage

Above: The sun sets over the emergency room of an Air Force Theater Hospital in Iraq in February.

Enlisted airmen qualified for a career in nursing may be able to help themselves to an officer commission and, at the same time, raise the number of Air Force nurses to a healthier level.

Under a just-announced program, the Air Force intends to send 50 active-duty enlisted airmen off to school full time for a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

The Air Force is experiencing its worst nursing shortage in at least five years, officials have said. At one point last year, more than 600 nursing positions — about 16 percent of the Air Force’s 3,875 authorized nursing slots — were unfilled, the Air Force Personnel Center reported at the time.

Read the rest at Air Force Times