Maine needs more nurses. We’re desperate for them, and there are hundreds of people who want to become nurses. There are just not enough schooling slots available to train the nurses Maine needs.

State law requires nursing instructors to hold master’s degrees. That vastly narrows the number of instructors available to teach, but the requirement is valuable because it means our nursing students are learning from the best, most qualified instructors.

Maine also has a strict student-teacher nursing ratio, again to ensure top-notch training for nurses entering the field.

Central Maine Medical Center recognizes the need to lure master’s-level nurses into the classroom to teach, and is actively encouraging their nursing staffers to consider this option. More teachers would allow nursing schools to expand programs, more students could enroll and Maine could produce more of the nurses it so badly needs.

It’s not a fast process, but it’s an important one.

CMMC’s School of Nursing is doing more.

It has entered into a partnership with St. Joseph’s College in Standish to allow nurses at Central Maine Health Care facilities – hospitals in Bridgton, Lewiston and Rumford – who have associate degrees to return to school to earn bachelor’s degrees. If they earn good grades, the hospital will reimburse 75 percent of tuition costs, erasing a major obstacle for people worried about the expense.

There are 18 CMMC nurses now taking part in the joint CMMC-St. Joe’s program, taking classes at work and incorporating that new education with on-the-job experience for patients’ benefit.

This program won’t relieve the nursing shortage, according to Sharon Kuhrt, director of the hospital’s school of nursing, but it could keep nurses in the field. And it could, if nurses who move from associate to bachelor’s degrees are inspired to keep learning, create more master’s-level nurses who might be willing to teach a new generation of nursing students.

We encourage Maine’s other nursing programs to consider following suit, not just for the promise of educating more nurses, but for the guarantee that we will receive care from better educated nurses.