Seven faculty members in the financially strapped Henderson State University‘s nursing program have submitted their resignations since January, leaving the university pressed to find replacements.

These resignations are in addition to two other nursing faculty members who departed the university almost a year ago, one through retirement and one through resignation. Henderson has since filled those positions, Henderson spokeswoman Tina Hall said.

One of those resigning from the Arkadelphia-based university warned of “serious consequences” for patients and nursing faculty members if the university continues operating a program with depleted staffing and resources.

But spokesman Jeff Hankins of the Arkansas State University System of which Henderson is now a part countered, “Henderson had more nursing faculty than needed, so not all of the positions must be replaced. Henderson is committed to recruiting and filling the needed positions to meet current student demand.”

Henderson has endured financial problems for several years now. They culminated last year when the ASU System’s board of trustees voted unanimously to cut 88 instructional positions, or 37% of the 237 total positions at Henderson. Twenty-one of those jobs were unfilled at the time. The ASU System also prepared to eliminate at least 25 of Henderson’s degree programs, including those in English, math, history, Spanish, geography, social science, early childhood development and theater arts.

Henderson’s recent nursin faculty resignations leave its program with five full-time assistant professors, two part-time adjunct professors and a full-time department chairperson, Hall said. The program has 99 undergraduate students and 37 graduate students.

“We are actively recruiting faculty to serve students in the nursing program and will fill at least five full-time positions,” Hall said in an email. “Two positions are currently being advertised, and an additional three positions will be hired as well.”

All of the resignations will take effect in May except for two that took effect earlier this year. Most of the resignation letters, obtained under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, did not criticize Henderson.

But in a Jan. 9 letter, Leah Wood, assistant professor of nursing, was candid about the factors that led to her decision and her concerns for the nursing department’s future.

“I experienced extreme stress in the spring semester of 2022 with furloughs, 20% cut in our salaries and uncertainty if we would even continue to be employees of the
university,” wrote Wood, who said she would leave Jan. 16. “This has taken an unrecoverable emotional toll. My heart is not in teaching any longer. I do not feel that the pay for nursing instructors is equivalent to the experience and work that is performed. I chose to go into this career as it had been a lifelong career goal of mine to teach. A practicing APRN in the state of Arkansas could make up to $120,000 per year. This is a vast discrepancy when compared to the salary of nursing professors.”

Wood also said she does “not agree with Henderson State University’s plans for the future to grow a program with less staff and inadequate resources to accomplish these goals.”

“This is a plan that will lead to less personal interaction with students who are being trained for healthcare,” she warned. “It is also a concern dealing with students as the driving force seems to have shifted where students are in control of the education they have not yet received. Students manipulate the system assuming they already have the knowledge and experience to provide patient care and faculty has little recourse to alter this. This can lead to serious consequences for patients and faculty supervising them.”

In an email, Hankins noted that “There’s a severe nursing shortage in Arkansas and nationwide with intense competition for nurses and nursing faculty. Most of the resignation letters acknowledged faculty taking other jobs that pay better.”

Hankins said ASU’s Jonesboro campus, for example, has two openings for full-time nursing faculty. “Baptist Health alone has over 300 openings for nurses,” he said.

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