In his May 29 "Offerings" column, David B. Offer had an interesting piece suggesting that the Maine Legislature consider investing in the future of nurses in Maine. His point was that increasing the number of nurses would help overcome the shortage of nurses and create well-paying jobs to add tax revenue to the state. However, he missed two important issues.

First is the fact that all nursing professors have to have a masters in nursing degree to teach. This requirement limits the number of eligible nurses available to teach in an academic program. This masters in nursing requirement is helping to perpetuate the nursing shortage nationally. To overcome this problem, Massachusetts in 2002 started granting waivers to allow highly experienced nurses with non-nursing masters to teach in nursing schools. Maine may need to consider this too.

The second issue Offer did not mention is the discrepancy in wages between nursing instructors and clinical nurses. He stated that MaineGeneral has a starting salary of $42,000 and the average pay is $54,000 regardless of educational preparation. I am currently working part-time at Togus in a position that would pay more than $72,000 if full time. In 2006, an associate professor of nursing in the United Stated earned $59,630 on average.

Building more classrooms without paying increased salaries for instructors is not going to motivate nurses to get advanced degrees and become future teachers.

Donald Eldridge, BSN, MS, RN

West Gardiner