The nursing community, led by nine professional nursing organizations, will support a nursing legislative event in the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 from 8:30 until 10:30 a.m. Breakfast will be provided in honor of the legislators and their support of nursing and nursing education. Faculty from two schools of nursing will be on hand to demonstrate nursing simulation scenarios. In addition, a summary report on the simulation feasibility study, which was funded by the 2008 Legislature, will be available.

The Mississippi Legislature has been responsive to the needs of the nursing and nursing education communities. In addition to funding the nursing simulation study in 2008, in recent years, legislators have provided money for raises for nurse educators. They have also funded additional nursing faculty positions at the state’s schools of nursing. This support of nursing education is extremely important for helping the state overcome the nursing shortage, explains Dr. Martha Catlette, director of nursing education for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning. "Mississippi faces a shortage of nursing faculty, which is expected to worsen 30-40 percent over the next two years. A shortage of faculty creates a bottleneck in the nursing education pipeline. With fewer faculty, schools of nursing can educate fewer students, graduate fewer students, and produce fewer practicing nurses."

The sponsoring organizations are the Mississippi Association of Student Nurses, Mississippi Board of Nursing, Mississippi Council of Deans and Directors of Schools of Nursing, Mississippi Health Care Association, Mississippi Hospital Association/Mississippi Organization of Nurse Executives, Mississippi Nurses Association, Mississippi Organization for Associate Degree Nursing, Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce, and the Mississippi Organization for Associate Degree Nursing Student Association.

The Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning governs the public universities in Mississippi, including Alcorn State University; Delta State University; Jackson State University; Mississippi State University including the Mississippi State University Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine; Mississippi University for Women; Mississippi Valley State University; the University of Mississippi including the University of Mississippi Medical Center; and the University of Southern Mississippi.

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