Editorial

Training nurses

Monday, July 20, 2009

Caring for Missourians is a $40 million statewide initiative using federal stimulus funds aimed at training more health-care professionals at Missouri's public colleges and universities. Southeast Missouri State University will receive nearly $1.2 million for its nursing programs.

Recently, state Sen. Jason Crowell sent a letter to the university's board of regents asking that it impose guidelines that would restrict the Caring for Missourians funding to Missouri residents who promise to seek jobs in Missouri.

The senator's aim is to ensure high-quality care for Missourians while making sure a portion of the state's stimulus funding isn't used to benefit other states. While this may be, in its purest form, a well-intentioned idea, it is one that isn't practical.

As it turns out, 41 of 46 bachelor of science in nursing graduates at the university last year were Missourians, and 44 of the graduates were licensed in Missouri.

But, as the regents pointed out in a reply to Crowell, it would be impractical to impose state-specific restrictions on nursing school students. And admitting out-of-state students to the program tends to generate more health care professionals for Missouri in the long run.

Caring for Missourians is a good program without the narrow limits Crowell suggests.

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Caring for Missourians is a one time $40M inverstment by Missouri taxpayers with the goal of increasing access to quality health care for Missourians by increasing health care workers...a worthy goal. However, neither SEMO nor its Editorial Board will deter my efforts to ensure fiscal oversight and accountability in the administration of this program and the investment of $40M (this year) of taxpayer money. Missouri students and taxpayers should be the ones to benifit from Missouri's investment; SEMO's unwillingness to sign on to this guiding principle shows me that its intention is to use Missouri taxpayer dollars to conceivably train IL students for health care jobs in Kentucky. As long as that possibility exists SEMO's administration of its portion of the Caring for Missourians program is fatally flawed. As horrible the thought may be to SEMO and its Editorial Board accountability will be demanded especially in light of the fact that when you take SEMO's alloted $1.172M and divide by the announced "6 new slots for FNP and 10 new slots for an accelerated program" then the Missouri taxpayers just at SEMO alone are making an investment of $73,263 per newly trained health care worker, per year. At the University of Missouri-Columbia level that number explodes to $121,148 per health care worker ($9.328M / 77) and at the University of Missouri sytem as a whole it is $121,391 per health care worker ($24.278M / 200). A rather step investment to say the least. Rememeber, the General Assembly did not create Caring for Missourians the Governor and the university presidents did. The money I worked to provide to SEMO this pass session, $1.172M was not "ear marked" for Caring for Missourians; it was expected to be used by SEMO at SEMO's descretion for one time neeeds. Dr. Dobbins and the Board of Regents took these one time funds and created the on going program at SEMO under the state wide title - Caring for Missourians. And at $73K plus per health care worker trained and because the university set this individualized program up on its own rest assured I will continue to demand accountability, provide vigerous oversight and ensure that Missouri taxpayers are the benificiaries of their investment.

-- Posted by Jason Crowell on Mon, Jul 20, 2009, at 11:41 AM
We have no business starting a new program with the state finances the way they are.

-- Posted by brad80 on Tue, Jul 21, 2009, at 10:44 AM

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