WASHINGTON – The American Association of Colleges of Nursing says enrollment in entry-level baccalaureate nursing programs increased by 3.5 percent from 2008 to 2009, despite the fact that almost 40,000 qualified nursing applicants were turned away this year.

Though interest in nursing careers remains strong, many seeking to enter the profession can't be accommodated in nursing programs due to faculty and resource constraints, said the AACN. According to a recent survey conducted by the organization, 39,423 qualified applications were turned away from 550 entry-level baccalaureate nursing programs in 2009.

This is comparable to the numbers of students turned away in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, which ranged from 36,400 to 41,385. The AACN expects this number to increase when final data from 2009 is available in March 2010.

Based on data received from 318 schools of nursing, qualified nursing students are being rejected due to a shortage of faculty (60.7 percent) and an insufficient number of clinical placement sites (61 percent). Given last year's cuts in state funding to nursing schools, the number of schools reporting budget cuts or insufficient budget  more than doubled from 14.8 percent in 2008 to 31.1 percent in 2009.

“Despite considerable financial challenges and capacity constraints, nursing schools nationwide were successful in their efforts to maintain a robust pipeline of future nurses this year,” said AACN President Fay Raines. “AACN applauds the efforts undertaken by schools to expand the nursing student population as well as national and state initiatives to recruit more students into nursing and enhance the education level of practicing nurses.”

This year’s 3.5 percent enrollment increase for entry-level baccalaureate programs is based on data supplied by the same 511 schools reporting in both 2008 and 2009. This is the ninth consecutive year of enrollment gains, the AACN reports.

The AACN survey found that the number of graduates from entry-level baccalaureate programs increased by 3.2 percent from 2008 to 2009 (492 schools reporting). This was preceded by a six-year period (1996-2001) of graduation declines.

The survey shows that enrollment in Master’s and Doctoral degree nursing programs increased this year. Nursing schools with Master’s programs reported a 9.6 percent increase in enrollment (409 schools reporting) and a 10.5 percent increase in graduations (380 schools reporting).

“Moving more nursing students into graduate programs is a top priority for the profession given the growing demand for more nurses to serve as teachers and researchers as well as specialty and primary care providers,” said Raines. “As we move closer to healthcare reform, many more nurses with Master’s and Doctoral degrees will be needed to provide essential healthcare service, including nurses to serve in the four advanced practice registered nurses roles (clinical nurse specialist, nurse anesthetist, nurse practitioner and nurse midwife).”

AACN officials said they are leveraging the organization's resources to secure federal funding for professional nursing programs, offer regional faculty development conferences, administer minority faculty scholarship programs, collect annual data on faculty vacancy rates and identify strategies to address the shortage.