Demand for nurses is propelling acceleration of faculty hires at Mountain State University, according to Dr. Judith Halle, professor and dean of MSU School of Health, Sciences and Nursing.

With 879 nursing students spread throughout West Virginia and MSU campuses in other states, the university is the largest school of nursing in West Virginia.

Halle said the retirement of baby-boomers and decline of other industries have created a growth in the health care industry right now.

That growth is fueling MSU to meet the demand, especially in the graduate program, she said.

“There’s certainly a growth in terms of nursing schools, but we need more faculty to have the nursing schools grow,” explained Halle.

“We do have more people wanting to get into the graduate school, Halle added.

“It’s like the graduate schools have to catch up.”

Five nursing faculty positions on the Beckley campus and five on the Martinsburg campus will be posted next week, she added.

“We’ve grown so much with all these students, so we’ve had to post new positions,” Halle explained.

Halle commented that there are currently 135,000 vacancies nationwide.

A recent survey by the Journal of the American Medical Association predicted the vacancies would jump to half a million by 2025.

“Nationally, we need to be graduating 30,000 more nurses to meet that need,” she said.

“The fact that we are growing and MSU President Charles Polk has been able to take this college and grow it into MSU, making it the biggest school of nursing in West Virginia, is just fantastic,” she added.

MSU offers three undergraduate programs: a traditional four-year bachelor’s degree, a non-traditional nursing program for licensed practical nurses who want to become registered nurses, and BABS, a bachelor of science and nursing degree for those who have bachelor’s degrees in another field who want a bachelor’s in nursing.

Mountain State University also offers an “RN to BSN” program for those have an associate’s degree in nursing and want to pursue a bachelor’s degree.

Nurses who want to enter administration or teach are typically those who enter the RN to BSN program, said Halle.

Hospitals also benefit by hiring nurses who have bachelor’s degrees, she added.

“They’ve done studies that suggest sometimes bachelor’s-trained nurses’ critical thinking is better,” she said. “Bachelor’s-trained nurses have actually reduced the death rate in the hospitals by 5 percent.”

Those who train on the Beckley campus usually begin work in the area, according to Halle.

“Students stay primarily in the area where they are going to school,” she said.

Although nursing is still a female-dominated field, men are making strides in the program, too.

“The men who join do very well,” she said. “A lot of times, it’s a cross-over from military medic and paramedics.”