The Shared Nurse Academic Practice Partnership Initiative, a collaboration between Sam Houston State University and four local hospital systems, aims to address the issue.
In addition, Conroe ISD is working with health care professionals to help guide high school students who want to pursue nursing or related careers.
“There is a nursing faculty shortage in the United States. ... In Texas in particular, it’s acute,” said Devon Berry, director of the SHSU School of Nursing. “That nursing faculty shortage is really important, because down the pipeline from there is the nursing workforce shortage.”
The big picture
As Texas sees a shortage of nearly 46,000 registered nurses this year, SHSU is piloting the program to allow nursing students to get hands-on experience led by nurses who have worked in the field for years, Berry said.
Initially funded by $999,500 from Texas Higher Education Coordination Board’s Nursing Innovation Program Grants, SNAPPI launched in 2024 with a feasibility study over two semesters at four sites that showed SHSU was able to reduce its reliance on part-time faculty by 10%, Berry said.
A 2023 report from the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies stated data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Texas has 826 registered nurses per 100,000 people compared to 948 RNs per 100,000 nationally. According to the report, the supply of registered nurses in Texas is lower due to “issues such as an aging workforce, nurse burnout and violence in the health care setting.”
Another 2023 report from the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies states Texas is projected to face a shortage of both licensed vocational nurses and registered nurses by 2036 based on projections from data collected in 2022.
SNAPPI pairs the SHSU School of Nursing with four major health care organizations in North Houston—St. Luke’s, Memorial Herman, Houston Methodist and HCA Houston Healthcare—to provide instruction from working nurses.
Students in the program were randomly selected to participate along with experienced nurses, Berry said.
“Our struggle really now is ... trying to get more nurses educated. And part of that challenge is the clinical placement. We have to have enough nurses to train the new nurses,” said Melanie Graves, director of nursing support services at St. Luke’s Health-The Woodlands.
According to information from the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies, in 2024 the number of nursing students offered admission was lower than the number of available seats, with the primary reasons being lack of space and lack of qualified instructors.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, some factors contributing to the nursing shortage include:
- Increase in age for faculty
- Increase in early retirements
- Leaving for better pay in private or clinical settings
SNAPPI allows nurses to continue to receive clinical pay while providing support as faculty.
“Post-pandemic, the difference between what we pay a nurse in academia and what we pay a nurse in a clinical setting can exceed 30%, and you’re getting paid better in the clinical setting than you are in the academic setting,” Berry said. “So there’s a huge economic disincentive to get engaged with education, because you’re just going to make less money.”
Kerrie Guerrero, chief nursing officer for Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital, said the program has also helped with nurse retention.
“We’ve seen ... increased interest from other nurses, retention gains and ... a meaningful contribution to SHSU’s faculty needs,” she said.
“We’re finding that perfect path ... to [train] nurses that ... are more practice-ready when they graduate," said Melanie Graves, director of nursing services at St. Luke’s Health-The Woodlands.
“Our long-term goal is to get permanent funding for the SNAPPI program throughout the state of Texas," said Devon Berry, director of the School of Nursing at Sam Houston State University.
“[SNAPPI] gives the opportunity ... to try something that is new and not as difficult on your body," said Christie Dawson, chief nursing officer at Memorial Hermann Cypress Hospital.
“[SNAPPI] allows our nurses to lead clinical instruction without completely stepping away from patient care," said Kerrie Guerrero, chief nursing officer, Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital.
Assessing the need
Efforts to engage students in nursing careers through education partnerships also begin at the high school level in Conroe ISD through a collaboration with St. Luke’s Health.
Jessica Beckham, a CISD college and career counselor, said the monthly program promotes awareness to help students get a foot in the door with a future career.
“We had a student that came to every single one of our presentations,” said Lisa Williams, director of Patient Care Services at St. Luke’s Health-The Woodlands. “[He] told me, ‘I was thinking about going into engineering, but now I’ve decided to go into nursing.’”
Beckham said the district is also looking to expand the program to juniors to get them engaged at an earlier age. Currently, the district has an annual program geared toward juniors, Junior Jumpstart, which includes information about health care careers.
Next steps
As of March 17, SNAPPI was approved for an additional $999,500 grant to help with scaling through replication, expansion and diversification in the state, SHSU officials told Community Impact.
The expansion could help increase the number of nursing educators, in turn boosting the number of qualified nurses entering the workforce, Berry said.
Meanwhile, Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center leadership will be meeting with SHSU in late June to discuss the next steps in that hospital system’s partnership with SHSU. It currently participates at the system’s Cypress campus.
According to SHSU, Gov. Greg Abbott’s Task Force on Health Care Workforce Shortages has highlighted SNAPPI as a model for addressing the state’s health care workforce challenges going forward.
“If Texas indeed wants to have the best nursing workforce in the country, we’ve got to find a way together at the state level to fund a SNAPPI-like program to offset that faculty shortage, and to do this magic piece of when a nurse takes students to the unit that she works on,” Berry said.
- 23% of RNs have retired or plan to retire over the next 5 years.
- 46 is the average age for nurses.
- 2032 is the year by which Texas will face a shortage of most nurse types.
