Area's current needs not severe, but colleges look to future

As a child, Daniel Bustillos was unaware that he had a rare blood-clotting disorder that would cause him to have a stroke at age 15, minor heart attacks in his 20s and eventually propel him toward a career in nursing.

After spending countless hours with hospital nurses because of his disorder, Bustillos, now 29, saw promise in entering the profession. But when his mother's death in March 2013 left him with increased family responsibilities, he wasn't sure if he could afford a nursing education.

"I did not know how I was going to afford a program because one of the last things my mom wanted to me do was take care of my two youngest brothers," Bustillos said. "I didn't know how I was going to be able to do that and pay for school."

Fortunately for him, that changed last spring. Bustillos was a recipient of a one-time, $2,500 scholarship from the Kinnser Scholars Program. With that scholarship easing his financial burden, Bustillos enrolled last spring in the nursing program at the Round Rock campus of Austin Community College.

"It took care of all the books, all the fees [for] the entire first year," Bustillos said. "It was fantastic."

And because of a recent funding expansion of that scholarship program by Austin-based Kinnser Software, Bustillos will be far from the only nursing student to benefit. Kinnser gave a second gift of $775,000 to the scholarship fund in mid-April—three times the initial amount the company donated in 2011 when the fund was started.

Every ACC student who receives the scholarship gets $2,500. They can reapply each academic year, just as Bustillos did earlier this year.

Kinnser Software develops electronic health care records for home health care and hospice agencies. Kinnser Human Resources Manager Maggie Blair said the company hopes the scholarship will help counteract any Central Texas nurse deficit.

The scholarships will allow cash-strapped nursing students to focus on their studies by relieving some of their financial pressure, Blair said.

The scholarship program will assist about 400 area students pursuing a licensed vocational nursing certificate or associate degree in nursing. Twice a year ACC accepts about 70 nursing students at its Round Rock campus, said Patricia Recek, ACC interim executive dean for health sciences. ACC graduated 259 nursing students in 2013.

Feeding a growing need in Texas

The scholarship is just one way that the nursing and health care industries are trying to swell the ranks of Texas nurses. While Travis and Williamson counties have largely managed to escape the nursing shortage that has gripped the state and nation for several years, experts say keeping students in the field will be important to meeting future demands.

The national demand for nurses, which is expected to rise because of an aging population and wider access to health care, is reflected in government projections for the nursing industry. The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics predicted in 2012 that the economy would add 526,800 registered nursing jobs nationwide—a 19 percent increase—by 2022.

Corby Jastrow, chairman of the ACC Foundation which administers the Kinnser scholarships, said an added bonus of helping ACC students is that they tend to stay in the area, which should continue to keep many nurses in Greater Austin. The majority of ACC nursing graduates "live, work and play and settle here," Jastrow said.

Between 2007 and 2013 the number of registered nurses in Williamson County rose by 95 percent, far outpacing the 35 percent rise in the county's population, according to data compiled by the Texas Center for Workforce Studies, a division of the state health department. In Travis County, the number of registered nurses rose 29 percent during the same time period.

Williamson County's number of nurses appears drastically lower than Travis County's on paper because many Williamson County residents commute south to Travis County for medical care. Many nurses in Travis County serve residents of both counties.

Area counties sidestep shortage

The rising number of nurses in Travis and Williamson counties has meant the statewide nursing shortage has not been as sharply felt in Round Rock, Pflugerville and Hutto. That is because of a number of factors, said Terry Jones, president of the Central Texas chapter of the Texas Organization of Nursing Executives and a professor at The University of Texas.

"In general, Central Texas has not been affected by the nursing shortage to the same extent that some other counties and regions have," Jones said.

While Texas may need more nurses per capita, the distribution of registered nurses in the state is not uniform, she said. Some counties have enough while others are lacking. Travis and Williamson counties fall into the first category.

The high density of local nursing schools has led to a large number of graduates. Enrollment in higher education nursing programs in Travis County rose 14 percent between 2007 and 2013, and the number of graduates from such programs rose by 72 percent during the same period, according to survey data from the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies.

ACC's Round Rock campus was the only institution offering nursing degrees in Williamson County prior to the 2009-10 academic year when Texas State University's Round Rock campus began accepting nursing students. Last year TSU Round Rock had 189 nursing students and graduated 80.

Many nursing graduates stay in the area, Jones said. Austin's prosperity can discourage recent grads and experienced nurses from moving to rural Texas.

"With nursing being a predominantly female profession, you have to look at not just the nursing jobs but who the nurses are likely to be married to," Jones said. "The nurses can find jobs in this area, but their partners can also find jobs in this area as well. You have to look at it from a family perspective."

In addition, the economic downturn that began in 2008 pushed many part-time or retired nurses with more experience back into the full-time workforce, said Jones. Those seasoned nurses and fresh recruits have led to an above-average concentration of practicing nurses in the area.

Future shortages still a concern

Travis and Williamson counties' unique appeal should not suggest, however, that the region is immune to future nursing shortages. Despite the positive trends, several factors could greatly increase demand, said Cindy Zolnierek, a registered nurse and executive director of the Texas Nurses Association.

Zolnierek said a large number of nurses delayed their retirements during the recession and likely will stop working soon. Those who re-entered the job market during the recession are also likely to exit again as the economy recovers. The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is also expected to increase the number of patients in Central Texas.

"When you don't have a nurse, or the right number of nurses, patient outcomes suffer," Zolnierek said.

A significant portion of Central Texans will soon become seniors, Recek said. Those older people will have more chronic ailments that will require more care. Central Texas' skyrocketing population will also demand more nurses.

"Not only do we have an aging population, we have a lot of people moving in. We have more complex kinds of health situations that are [also] going to require nurses," Recek said. "We have an aging nursing population that's going to retire."

The stakes for Travis and Williamson counties go beyond access to nursing care. The area's economic boom relies on healthy employees, making access to care and adequate nurse staffing matters of dollars and cents for employers.

"Business is concerned because as they try to recruit for their workforce, [potential employees] are interested in health care, health care costs, health care access and all of that," Zolnierek said. "If there is an inadequate health care system, it is going to cost business and industry more in health insurance dollars."

Keeping up the flow

Jones said the best way to prevent the region's nursing surplus from turning into a shortage is to keep incentivizing students to enter the field. Even though the local market is healthy and nursing jobs can be difficult to find in Greater Austin, the field still needs fresh nursing recruits, Jones said.

"Unless we have new people coming in, we're going to experience a shortage again," Jones said. "It's very important that we attract the best and brightest people to nursing. It's very important that we send the message that, 'yes, we need you.'"

For students such as Bustillos, that is the message being sent by ACC and its scholarship partners.

"[They are] doing this for the community that they are working with, knowing that there is going to be this deficit in the future," Bustillos said. "They are going out and being proactive."