By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Vicki Valentine, left, and Jami Hiler will graduate today from the nursing program at Miami University's Hamilton campus. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

OXFORD - Miami University nursing students picked the right profession for a tough job market.

While droves of college graduates are struggling to find jobs this spring, many nursing majors are weighing multiple offers. And it seems there's no end in sight for opportunities.

As President James C. Garland confers 3,320 degrees at commencement today, 71 nursing students will have an advantage for which most new graduates can only wish: a demand for their skills.

Vickie Valentine of Liberty Township and Jami Hiler of Oxford, both of whom will receive associate's degrees, are entering a market that's clamoring for nurses.

Students like these are looking at even higher salaries than the $37,900 average for last year's Miami graduates. Nationally, statistics show a salary jump as high as 11 percent from a year ago for nursing graduates.

"There were recruiters waiting for us after class," said Hiler, 33, who will start as a nurse at Oxford's McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital in July. "They were always outside."

That scenario is seen in college nursing programs nationwide because the country is in the midst of a nursing shortage. Experts say the shortage will only worsen as baby boomers' health care needs grow.

A July 2002 report by the Health Resources and Services Administration said 30 states, including Ohio and Indiana, were estimated to have shortages of registered nurses in 2000. That shortfall is projected to intensify over the next two decades with 44 states plus the District of Columbia expecting shortages by 2020.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that more than 1 million nurses - new and replacement - will be needed by 2010. But the rate at which they're produced is only about 66,200 per year.

"By 2010, we'll only be about halfway there," said Robert Rosseter, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based American Association of Colleges of Nursing. "That's the scary number. The situation with nursing right now is a supply-versus-demand issue.

"The demand for care has gone up because of changes in demographics. The population is getting older, and senior adults require the most nursing care."

That number also was exacerbated by six years of declining enrollments in the nation's nursing programs before a small increase in 2001-'02 and a larger increase in 2002-'03. That jump, experts say, can be attributed to both Sept. 11, as people saw new meaning in the job, as well as job security. Miami's nursing applications show the same upward trend for the fall.

"When there has been an economic downturn, people see nursing as a stable profession," said Eugenia Mills, director of Miami's nursing department.

"It is starting to sink into the public's minds the need for more nurses. We've experienced an upturn in applications, with 380 for the 90 available slots for this fall."

Carol Cooke, a spokeswoman for the American Nurses Association in Washington, D.C., said these students never will be without a job if they don't want to be. In terms of hard dollars and cents, the opportunities are numerous.

"Nurses are in very high demand," she said. "Many hospitals are paying signing bonuses, $5,000, $10,000, to come to work. It's a great skill to have. You can pretty much go anywhere you want to work. It's definitely a growth field."

For Hiler and Valentine, it's a job they've both worked toward for years while balancing family and other responsibilities. Each must take the test to become registered nurses, but Miami's program has a reputation for preparing students for the test. Out of last year's batch of Miami nursing graduates, 96 percent passed, 10 percent above the national average, Mills said.

Though the program is rigorous, Valentine said, she is glad she saw it through.

"At the end, it is worth it," she said. "I feel a huge sense of accomplishment."

Jon Gambrell contributed to this report.

E-mail kgoetz@enquirer.com