Kelly Rehman, 38, graduated from Rutgers University-Camden with a bachelors degree in art. Now she’s distributing her resume to hospitals and other health care facilities searching for jobs in the nursing field.

Rehman, of Pitman, N.J., changed her career in just 11 months with an accelerated nursing program at Drexel University in Philadelphia for students with degrees in other fields.

The nationwide nursing shortage – expected to intensify through 2020 – has pushed Drexel and other nursing schools to shorten their programs to fill jobs faster.

“We know that in 2020 we are going to have a serious problem,” said Dr. Gloria Donnelly, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel.

“We did the accelerated program at Drexel because we were right at the beginning of the panic about the nursing shortage,” Donnelly said. “We had the five-year program in place, and we said, “Why not see what we can do to produce more nurses in a short amount of time?’ It’s a heavier schedule, but it works.”

The shortage began in 1990, when enrollment in nursing programs dropped by 17 percent. Since then, it has been fueled by baby boomer retirements and a faculty shortage in nursing schools.

Rehman, however, is still on the hunt for a nursing position.

Because of an influx of nursing students from all over the area entering the workforce, she is still competing with the rest of 2008’s nursing school graduates.

“There are jobs out there, but I think there are more people graduating than jobs available in this area,” she said.

Other nursing graduates have run into the same problem, but educators say the tight job market is temporary.

“This is not our first shortage, but this is by far the greatest nursing shortage,” said Associate Dean Connie Hartzel of the Helen Fuld School of Nursing.

Helene Fuld School also is changing its format from a three-year program to two years.

“I think everybody is trying to have a larger number of students graduate,” Hartzel said, emphasizing the continued need to recruit nurses to fill vacancies in hospitals and health care facilities that are beginning to expand.