Funding in higher education: where does nursing fit?

Resource allocation systems for higher education including funding formulas vary greatly with most models grounded in the traditional Arts and Sciences, that is, campus-based, large-classroom instruction. The implications for nursing, a clinical discipline, are monumental. Funding models in general use do not account for the requirements of nursing education related to clinical learning (vulnerable patients, liability, large number of contact hours in clinical laboratories). Little information related to funding issues in schools of nursing has appeared in nursing literature over the past 10 years, and there are limited data for administrators of nursing programs to use as benchmarks. Administrators in nursing education programs must acquire a better understanding of budget and finance systems in higher education at state and university levels. Likewise, nursing education leaders are challenged to collectively verify and clarify the unique needs of nursing education in the budget process and to become active in educating college and university administrators and state legislatures about these unique needs.