With a growing shortage of nurses in Louisiana, looming budget cuts only threaten to compound the problem.  The Louisiana nursing shortage has reached an all-time high with more than 4,000 unfilled positions, according to the Louisiana Hospital Association. “We are barely meeting our annual replacement each year,” said Karen Zoeller, vice president of workforce development for the Louisiana Hospital Association. “[Louisiana schools] are graduating about 1,800 nurses a year.” Hospitals in the state are facing a growing problem of empty positions for nurses, and the nursing schools are turning away qualified students, Zoeller said. Nursing schools in Louisiana turned away about 1,600 qualified students because they didn’t have enough nursing faculty, said Norann Planchock, president of the Louisiana Organization of Nurse Executives. The Louisiana State Board of Nursing most recent annual report, released in 2007, showed Louisiana nursing schools received 4,489 qualified applicants but only admitted 3,030 students. The Health Science Center New Orleans is currently accepting about 100 students per semester in the bachelor of science in nursing, which is the maximum the school has room for, said Catherine Lopez, LSU Health Science Center  New Orleans assistant dean. About 300 students apply in the fall and about 180 students in January, and the school has to turn away qualified students because of limited faculty, Lopez said. “Physical building space is a limiting factor as well,” Lopez said. The amount of faculty teaching the nursing programs is the main factor in enrollment into nursing schools, Planchock said. Because the state is cutting the budget for higher education, Louisiana could experience more shortages in the nursing faculty, Zoeller said.”Nursing is a very expensive program to run,” Zoeller said. “[Schools] may be forced to say ‘We have to cut back on the number of students we have.'” LSU Health Sciences Center at New Orleans has a current operating budget of more than $200 million, said Charles Zewe, LSU System spokesman. LSU HSC-NO will have to cut $36.1 million of the nursing school’s budget according to the 30 percent budget cuts System President John Lombardi projected for the              University, The worst-case scenario projection means eliminating a total of 286 faculty and staff, according to the report. Lopez said the school plans to find creative ways to cut the budget without cutting faculty members. Travel expenses and educational leaves are the first expenses cut from the budget, she said.”I think some good things may come of this,” Planchock said. “I feel fairly confident it will work out.”Planchock said she is meeting with the Louisiana Nursing Association to discuss how the educational budget cuts can help change Louisiana’s nursing education and make the program more efficient.   “I’m worried about the budget cuts,” Zoeller said. “If the Universities are told they have to cut back … where am I going to get my nurses?”—-Contact Joy Lukachick at [email protected]