"This is absolutely necessary to keep this program that trains nurses fully operational," said Joyce Tsunoda, senior vice president for the university and chancellor for community colleges. "With salaries at hospitals higher and higher, that's the competition we're facing."

At the same time the regents designated the nursing program at the community colleges as a "high-demand discipline" in action at its monthly meeting yesterday. Three years ago the Manoa program received the same designation.

Hawai'i nursing schools graduate about 280 nurses each year — about 120 fewer than the demand. Nationally there's a need for 280,000 new nurses annually and that's expected to rise to 800,000 by 2020.

The hope with the regents' action yesterday is to head off an impending crisis in training new nurses in Hawai'i, retaining faculty and in replacing those faculty expected to retire in the next five to 10 years. More than 40 percent of Hawai'i's nursing work force is over 50 years of age and more than 75 percent are over 40.

Already nurses coming out of the university system are being hired at salaries almost comparable to those of their professors, said Tsunoda. Within a year their salaries would be higher.

"The students turned out by the community colleges earn as much or more than the faculty who trained them," said Tsunoda.

Tsunoda said the community college teaching salary range for a master's-prepared nurse is $48,912 to $52,704. By comparison, in the community, a nurse with a bachelor's degree can earn as much as $75,500 with overtime.

Regent Ah Quon McElrath suggested that the university work with the Hawai'i Nurses Association to see if retired nurses might want to serve as faculty. Tsunoda said that will also be explored.

"Vacancies in nursing programs throughout the state continue to plague programs," said Tsunoda. "At Mau'i Community College, in one year there were three vacancies." And the positions were difficult to fill, she said, because salaries just weren't competitive with private industry.

Hawai'i and Kapi'olani Community Colleges also continue to have unfilled nursing positions, said Tsunoda, "and recruitment of qualified nursing instructors with master's degrees continues to be a struggle."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the need for registered nurses will grow by as much as 21 percent in the next three years. At the same time enrollments in nursing programs are declining.