The expansion of the University of Connecticut's nursing program may help triple the number of graduates and address a nursing shortage, officials hope.

Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Dan Kain reported the university's program is expanding to campuses in Waterbury and Stamford. Students who already have degrees can take the program, which involves an intensive 11 months of classes to prepare them to take the licensing exam for nurses.

Despite the anticipated results, officials said much more is needed to avert what many see as a crisis.

"This particular shortage is considered to be extremely severe and unique, not the typical shortage, where the market changed and people came and went. This is because of the demographics and the increasing demand for health care," said Elizabeth Beaudin, the Connecticut Hospital Association's director of nursing and workforce initiatives.

By some estimates, if current trends continue, the state will be short by 11,000 nurses by the year 2010. By the year 2020, the state will encounter a shortage of 22,400 nurses.

The anticipated shortfalls partly have to do with the changing demographics in the state.

"Connecticut is about the eighth oldest state in the nation," Beaudin said. "We have an elderly population (that is) substantial. So, health care demand is greater. That's part of the formula in this projection."

Looking to the future, the number of people in the state over 65 in 2030 will increase by 69 percent -- and those 18 to 50 will decline by 7 percent.

"The good news is there is a lot of interest in nursing. The bad news is we can't get them through schools because we don't have enough faculty," Beaudin said.

Each year, nursing schools in the state turn away thousands of qualified applicants because of the shortage of faculty, which is one of the problems the program at UConn is designed to address.

"We're not saying, 'Oh, we're in a panic and we have to make nurses in a hurry so we're going to skimp.' These are excellent programs, but they are good creative ways to make nurses faster," Beaudin said.

In less than 20 years, officials anticipate that Connecticut will have the second-worst nursing shortage in the country, second to Alaska.

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