Though enrollment is growing, nursing schools turned away more than 67,000 qualified applications in 2010, including more than 11,000 applications to graduate programs. This trend is particularly troublesome given the great need to expand the number of nurse faculty, which requires preparation at the graduate level. The primary reasons reported by schools for not accepting all qualified applicants were a shortage of faculty and clinical placement sites as well as deep funding cuts at the state and local levels. .
