For the first time in Georgia nurses will be able to get a doctorate degree in nursing education to help train future nurses. The State Board of Regents approved the measure Wednesday. The program should help address a shortage of nursing professors.

The new program will be at the University of West Georgia. It’s one of four schools in the country combining departments of nursing and education. It prepares nurses to become faculty, and is entirely online.

Dean of West Georgia’s School of Nursing Kathryn Grams says last year Georgia nursing schools turned away 2,000 qualified candidates.

“There are regulations at most of the boards of nursing regarding the number of students per faculty member, and so that’s a factor that we have to look at in nursing that maybe wouldn’t be pertinent in quite the same way in a non-clinical discipline.”

Grams says the school hopes to have the program up and running by next fall.

Tags: nursing shortage, University of West Georgia, nurse educator shortage