Treasury takes on nursing shortage with scholarships, more students

The Finance Ministry is launching a comprehensive program to increase the number of nurses in Israel as well as to expand their duties, the latter in a bid to improve their professional standing. In a measure that contradicts the current trend toward belt-tightening, the treasury recently allocated NIS 14 million to add 200 places for nursing students and about NIS 25 million for scholarships to college-educated individuals who make a career switch into nursing.

In addition to that NIS 40 million outlay, the Finance Ministry spent about NIS 1 million for an advertising campaign to encourage college graduates to go into the profession. Treasury officials say they'd be willing to shove the crowbar into the public purse again if the demand from career switchers exceeds original expectations.

Israel's health sector is desperate for nurses. A 2008 report found a steady slide for the past several years in the nurse-to-population ratio, which is now less than six nurses for every 1,000 people, compared to between 13 and 18 for developed countries. To close the gap, the country's nursing schools need to turn out an additional 850 graduates a year, on top of the 1,100 who complete their professional training each year.

The treasury hopes to both help the medical system and find jobs for the growing ranks of educated unemployed. Toward that end it is offering to pay 80% of the NIS 24,000 tuition fee for an express two-year program (instead of the usual four years), in return for a promise to work in the profession for at least four years following training.

Also on the treasury's agenda is the expansion of nurses' professional duties. At an Israel Management Center conference on Tuesday, Moshe Bar Siman Tov of the Finance Ministry's budgets department said that his ministry, together with the Ministry of Health, plans to authorize nurses to prescribe certain medications. "It's a win-win situation," Bar Siman Tov said. "The nursing profession wins by becoming more attractive. It's a profession with a real shortage. All nurses today have academic degrees, and there's no reason why they cannot prescribe simple drugs."

In addition, he explained, the move would do a lot to lighten the burden on physicians. "There are already more than a few nurses walking around with signed prescription pads in their pockets," he said. "It's a genuine need within the system."

The Israel Medical Association opposes the move, and in 2007 it petitioned the High Court of Justice against a 2007 decision by the director general of the Health Ministry to expand the authorities of nurses, primarily in the area of stopping or starting a drug regime and adjusting dosages. In its petition, on which the court has yet to rule, the IMA argues that the ministry's director general does not have the authority to make such a decision.