Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Arkansas Times, and Little Rock public Radio.

Hi, everybody.

Arkansas is about 9000 nurses short of meeting care demand in the state.

That's according to a report commissioned by the Arkansas Hospital Association.

Two colleges have partnered together to attract more students to the field.

Joining me to talk about this collaborative effort are Doctor Susan Gatto, director of the University of Central Arkansas School of Nursing, and Doctor Lisa Glenn, associate dean for Baptist Health College nursing School, and little Rock.

I want to thank both of you for being with me.

First of all, it's mind boggling that there are 9000, that we are 9000 nurses short.

How did that happen?

Well, the nursing shortage is not a it's not new.

We've had a nursing shortage since the late 80s.

So but, with the opportunities that nurses have now, it seems like we've diluted the workforce a little bit more.

There's more opportunities for travel nursing for, and for medics.

There's just all different kinds of population specialties, telehealth and opportunities for, advanced degrees for nurses.

So it's not we probably have more nurses than we've ever had.

We just have more demand.

More demand.

There's a higher demand.

And I wonder too, because around the time of Covid was when I really started to realize that nurses had this large opportunity to travel around the country.

That that have, in effect, also did that kind of accelerate all of this happening at this point?

There were a lot of advantages for nurses to travel, especially when it comes to competitive salary.

And so but what we are starting to see now is a lot of those nurses that left out of the state to travel for Covid that are returning now.

And something else we have to remember is, you know, Arkansas is a beautiful state that many people come to retire in.

So when you look at our population, we have a large population of those older people that are requiring more complex care needs.

With that, we are also at a time where a lot of our baby boomer nurses are retiring, so they are retiring out faster than we are able to get nurses through nursing schools and out into the workforce.

And I'm sure what we're seeing here, where it probably mirrors what's happening throughout the country in terms of the shortage, is not just Arkansas.

It's a worldwide problem.

It's becoming a worldwide problem.

And Covid really had a significant impact because it was a difficult time for nurses.

So even during that time, nurses left the profession altogether or those that were close to retirement decided this is the time for me to retire.

So we lost a significant amount of nurses just during the Covid pandemic itself.

Okay, right.

That starts to make it all clearer.

So I want to talk about this pilot project that you guys have created.

It's called Bridge to Bson, and it's a partnership with Baptist Health College.

And in little Rock.

Explain to me what that is.

So basically, it's a dual enrollment program where the students that can go to Baptist to get their associate's degree program, to get their associate's degree in nursing, can also complete their, their baccalaureate in science in nursing, the BSN at the same time.

So it's a dual enrollment.

They actually take both programs at the same time right now.

You know, before they would have to get their associate's degree and then then do the completion program or what we call our earn the BSN program.

So how does how does this shorten the the length of time that they would normally be spending.

So instead of them completing one degree and starting the next, they complete both degrees at the same time.

So the first three semesters they are taking classes at both both institutions and the last Baptist School of Nursing, as well as UCA.

That's correct.

And the UK part is online, so they can be fully, fully in the program at Baptist.

And so then the last semester, they can take their two clinical courses for the baccalaureate program, to complete their degree.

So it's, it's actually a win win because if they got into our regular pre the Ucas pre-nursing program, it would be three years.

Well summer and two semesters.

Okay.

And now, so they would graduate the exact same time whether they got into our pre licensed program or did this program.

And this gives them what kind of benefit when they actually get into the job market, their, their, their licenses registered nurses.

And they also have the baccalaureate degree.

And the program is how long.

It's 18 months.

Is that correct for Baptist Health College?

We are an associate degree program, which is 18 months.

So these students enroll and they come to us for their pre licensure nursing courses where they spend 18 months with us.

And then they're able to graduate from us with their associate degree, which makes them eligible to sit for the in clinics or an exam and get their are in licensure while at the same time working on their bachelor degree courses that they need for a bachelor's degree.

So they're able to enter the workforce sooner while they're completing their BSN.

So they have one more additional semester after that, and then they're able to graduate with their BSN.

This really almost cuts the time down in half.

Okay.

Because like Doctor Gatto said, they normally will graduate from us and then quickly turn around and enter in R&B as in program, which can be anywhere from another 12 to 18 months and another additional 10 to $15,000 in tuition.

So this kind of is a win win for health care institutions.

It's a win win for the students, and it's a win win for our institutions.

So how attractive is this?

I mean, it sounds great to me.

How attractive is this to, you know, that student that's out there that says, you know what, I want to be a nurse.

So one of the things that I think is most attractive is that the the UK School of Nursing cannot admit all of the students that are qualified.

We just don't have the clinical placement capacity.

We don't have the faculty capacity.

So this offers more opportunities for them to get the baccalaureate degree in the same amount of time.

So we are increasing our enrollment.

Of course, it's just a pilot program at this point.

But when we get fully, you know, when we have it fully implemented, we're hoping to admit 25 more students.

So right now, you see, admit 125, that would be an additional 25 students.

So that would be up to 150 students that were graduating.

Yes.

So and that's, that's it's all about it increasing the numbers.

I know you're in this pilot program.

You have a class that has already begun, and they have roughly six more months.

I think you told me that they would graduate in December.

We have the first, class, which is part of the pilot program currently enrolled at Baptist.

They are set to graduate in December of 2025, and we are currently, in the process of enrolling the second class, which will actually start in July.

And we are starting to kind of get the word out more and communicate to those that are interested where we have almost doubled our enrollment of the last class.

That's excellent.

So and I realize being a pilot program, yeah, you got to get the word out.

I mean, part of this will help you get the word out about this, but, how are you doing that?

And I can imagine, though, once this class graduates in, in December, they'll go out into the workforce and they'll say, hey, let me tell you how I got here.

And that will inspire more people to want to get into this program.

How is it funded?

Well, the the financial aid is through UCA, although they're there for, scholarships at Baptist as well.

So, the students can find funding.

But one of the things that's where going back to your recruiting question, we, you know, the students spend two, two years getting their prerequisites and then they apply to the UK BSN program.

And so of that pool of students, we we work with them throughout the whole first two years, talking to them about getting into our program or having the alternative to go to into this bridge program.

So, they know about it from the beginning.

Oh, I say, and when you say prerequisite, what what does that require for a student?

It's 60 credit hours.

They take their biology and psychology and nutrition and all those things that are, required for a baccalaureate degree and also for nursing.

And so once they complete those 60 hours, they're eligible to apply to the major.

Okay.

And just to help all of us who don't necessarily understand, I know that some nurses can go to or some a soon to be nurses can get their baccalaureate, degree, their bachelor's degree.

I don't know if I even said that.

Right.

But their bachelor's degree in nursing and then there are nursing schools where it's not necessarily a bachelor's degree.

How do they different and and how did the nurses different, differ once they get out into the real world?

Well, for Baptist Health College, we are an associate degree program.

So our curriculum is structured around pre licensure nursing courses to help.

When they graduate they go out and be safe, competent nurses.

The advantage to a bachelor's degree is geared more towards like community involvement leadership management type style.

What we do find is that nurses are very education driven, and so a lot of them want to continue to get those higher degrees because of the advantages that it has in their career.

We've also seen that as nurses transition from that associate degree, going to the bedside and then going back and getting the bachelor's degree.

We've seen where the, quality indicators and performance indicators at the bedside show that patients are getting, quality care, just based on as nurses earn those higher degrees with that, health care has definitely changed.

And we talked about this a little bit earlier.

But you know, what we're seeing now is is completely different than, you know, the way health care looked a few years ago.

I mean, even a decade ago, how how do you continue to help nurses navigate the changes and, and recognize that, you know, like many industries, you know, what they have to do now is a lot different than, you know, what their moms might have done, you know, a few years ago.

Well, the nice thing about nursing is, even across the nation and worldwide is that we have, competencies that, you know, all schools have to meet, to get our accreditation and things like that.

So we have, certain metrics and standards that we, that the students all have to have.

So those agencies that develop those competencies involve all of us at multiple levels and many stakeholders so that we can keep up with the industry and what is projected for the future.

So it's really a very, large, system that we all, you know, tap into.

And I'm very proud of our profession because we have we have really done a great job of making sure that we are we are giving the workforce the level that they need.

It's a noble profession for sure.

And we could never survive without nurses, that is for sure.

Well, and we recognize that we speak a lot to health care institutions when our students graduating go out there.

As to how prepared were these students when they entered the workforce.

And we've restructured some of our curriculums to meet those needs, such as, we have found that the more time the students spend at the bedside and kind of a clinical hospital setting, the more prepared that they are to go out in the workforce, and they get that more real world view of what nursing is going to be like when they graduate.

We also try to incorporate things like informal technology has really advanced so much in health care now that nurses are having to use a lot of technology to do a lot of different things.

And so we're trying to incorporate that in our nursing curriculums to where we have those informatics, so that students learn that before they actually go out into the workforce and the goal is to actually make an easier transition.

We want the students to graduate and feel prepared to take care of these complex patients and these high acuity areas, and that they feel like they are safe and competent nurses when they get there.

Well, we all appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for what you do and and how you are helping our nurses, enter the future to help us all.

Thank you.

And thanks for being here.

Thank you, thank you.

All right.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

Welcome back everyone.

Rice is among Arkansas's top crops, and what's grown here accounts for more than 40% of what's produced nationwide.

Arkansas is a major supplier of rice internationally, but its share is slipping as other countries are growing more rice, and that has led prices for rice to suffer a rollercoaster effect lately.

With me now to explain what's happening is Doctor Alvaro Duran Murat, with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, and he leads the Arkansas Global Rice Economic Program.

And he joins me from Fayetteville.

Is so nice to have you, Doctor Duran.

Mourad, good to be here.

Thank you for having me.

Okay.

So what's happening to cause this change balance in rice production worldwide side?

Yeah.

Well, again, the global rice market is is big because rice is an important commodity globally.

But, the way I see that the way we, we see there are two main factors driving these, these significant changes in prices.

The most relevant one is India.

Again, India is, one of the largest rice producer, producing countries in the world.

Actually, this year is expected to surpass, for the first time ever, China, and become the largest rice producer.

And India again, when they have surpluses, they export, they have been exporting quite a bit lately.

And so that that increase in production and in exports, put again, downward pressure on international rice prices.

Another important I think, factor to consider is also on the demand side for imports, that coming from Indonesia, which, was the largest rice importer last year.

And this year, because of good growing conditions, they are expected to actually, import much less.

And so oversupply from India are less demand from, Indonesia that is putting downward pressure on prices.

This is quite interesting.

So, you mentioned India and I know, you you wrote a report about how, it has set a record for the past ten years in terms of production.

Let's get more into what's enabled them to be able to do that.

Yeah.

So India has India's rice production has grown, at an incredible pace.

I have been analyzing the rice market for over 20 years.

And, let me tell you, nobody expected India to become the producer that it is today at least.

I know from the colleagues that I interact with nobody, nobody predicted that, the main reason behind that, is, significant increases in rice yields, driven by, again, upgraded technologies, better seeds and things of that nature.

There has been a slight increase in acreage as well, but most of the gain really comes from, increasing yields.

Again, as many of the audience, may know, India also supports rice production.

So again, we cannot ignore the fact that the government provides subsidies to rice producers and also subsidies to rice consumers.

So there are a lot of again, rice is a staple.

On and for India, if something goes wrong with rice that leads to social unrest.

So no wonder the government is heavily involved in that in that sector.

And again, India has shown also over the years that, although they are, the largest rice exporter, their main objective of, of their rice policy is domestic.

Consumption is domestic food security.

And, all that led in 2023 to actually India banning the exports of rice, which was a shock to the global market.

It showed that, again, India, domestic food security is what drives their policy decisions to a large extent.

And again, India withdrawing from the international market to some extent due to the export ban resulted in international prices to to go up again, supply and demand at play here.

Last year, in October of 24, India announced the removal of the export ban.

India came, fully back to the international market.

And again, that drove the drop in prices that we have seen over the last, eight, eight months or so.

Yeah.

Wow.

So what are some of the strategies U.S rice growers can, produce with this changing environment?

Yeah.

Again, the situation as everybody in the rice industry analysis, is quite, fragile for, for the economics of rice in the US, farm prices are expected to decrease to a level that, may, may put a, at risk, the profitability of rice for, for many farmers.

And of course, that is very worrisome.

The strategies again, from, from my point of view, there are, a couple of things that the industry, is doing, but definitely, maybe need to, to strengthen or do it, do it.

To a large extent.

One of them is, again, we operate the U.S rice, is still considered kind of, a premium rice.

We don't compete directly with many, with rice from Asia.

We compete primarily with rise from Mercosur in, in markets throughout the Western Hemisphere, Central America, the Caribbean, northern South America.

And so we need to keep doing a good job at producing good, good quality rice that our, you know, customers overseas will still, prefer over the competition kind of regardless of the price or, even considering that U.S rice may be a little bit, a little bit more expensive, but quality should be still, I think, a good objective to, to keep, keep seeking the second I think point is, most of the US rice exports go to markets where, we have preferential access through trade agreements.

NAFTA or now now called Usmca, draft, bilateral trade agreements with Colombia and things of that nature have really facilitated U.S rice exports.

And so again, I think it is important for, for the industry to maintain and actually expand maybe trade integration with other regions.

I think those are two definitely two very important, avenues that the industry knows and the industry is pursuing.

Another thing is, again, to develop new markets, right?

Every time you struggle to sell your rice and again, we sell around 40% of the rice to, to buyers overseas.

So exports are a big deal for, for us rice.

So developing new markets is also a strategy.

And, and again the government, the USDA, has programs that support that type of activities.

And I know, again, the US Rice Federation and other organizations, are pursuing that.

But I think, in this in this market context, that becomes maybe even more relevant.

Yeah.

To highlight the quality and the, the good aspects of U.S rice in new markets, you know, even with these things that you mentioned, quality, trade agreements, finding new markets, all of that.

Even with those things in mind, do you see this change internationally, perhaps having long term ramifications here in the state of Arkansas?

I think if we talk about long term, I think the U.S rice sector has shown resiliency over the years.

So, in the long term, I can see, again, changes in, in, in, in agricultural practices and things of that nature that will lead to competitiveness.

So I'm, I know our farmers, I know our industry is strong and they will innovate to compete.

Maybe the short term this year or next year.

The context is of low prices.

And of course, there's not much room to change in the short term.

Right?

I mean, it's very hard to to be very innovative in 1 or 2 years.

Many times things take longer than that.

So I think the the long term, again, of course, we have to be mindful of it.

But again, the industry has shown that it can innovate under pressure and that it can it is resilient to to different market conditions.

In the short term, I think the picture is quite different.

Prices are expected to remain low this year.

Next year.

We are projecting again, part of our activities here is to protect the rice market for the next ten years.

And we are projecting that, yes, 24, 25 and 26 will be will be years of low prices.

Okay.

Things will start, you know, the international price will start going up again, in 27.

And, but again, the short term is what is what what worries me the most.

Yeah, the short term, not so much the long term.

You know, I think most of us, those of us who aren't farmers, when we think about what we've encountered with Mother Nature, we had a rainy spring, delayed planting, not as much crop in the ground.

Even this weekend we're dealing with rain.

Number one.

How does that affect quality and what does that do for production for this season?

What is this season looking like?

Yeah.

So again I am that are other experts on rice production that can answer that question better than me.

But I can give you like my overall view of what I, what I read and what I follow.

The crop in Arkansas, despite all the significant rain and flooding that happened early April, and that continues to kind of, happen throughout, May, with rains and I think unseasonably cold weather, despite all that, according to USDA numbers, the the crop progresses is kind of, at par with previous years.

So we are not seeing, I think I checked, I checked this week, 95% of the rice crop in Arkansas has emerged already.

Now, it is true that, there seems to be, some area that won't be planted.

I don't have the numbers right now to tell you how much, but I can tell you that the USDA projections for production this year are, only 3% lower for long grain rice, which is the rice that we produce primarily in Arkansas, relative to last year.

Okay.

Now, with that said, today at noon, actually, the USDA would release their was the report for this month, and some people are expecting to be some adjustments.

But again, we don't know until, like in one hour that that report will be released.

Okay.

But overall, again, you said it correctly, right?

I mean, know, the rainy season, the flooding, things could have.

Look, I think much worse.

In terms of quality specifically, it's very early in the season, so, it's very hard to say.

Quality is usually defined more, more advanced indices, during, after flowering.

Okay.

Well, we will keep our fingers crossed and yeah, the short term will encounter some issues, but hopefully in the long term things will work out.

Doctor Duran Mourad, thank you so much for joining us all the way from Fayetteville.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for the invitation, and I want to thank you for joining us for Arkansas Week.

I'm Donna Terrell.

I will see you next time.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Arkansas Times, and Little Rock Public Radio.