(1) Although Everett Community College offers an associate degree nursing program that graduates approximately seventy to ninety students per year, the University Center does not offer a bachelor of science in nursing. Some graduates of the Everett Community College program are able to articulate to the bachelor of science in nursing program offered by the University of Washington-Bothell at its Bothell campus or in Mt. Vernon but current capacity is not sufficient for all of the graduates who are both interested and qualified.
(2) Despite recent growth in nursing education capacity, shortages still persist for registered nurses. According to a June 2007 study by the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho center for health workforce studies, the average age of Washington's registered nurses was forty-eight years. More than a third were fifty-five years of age or older. Consequently, the high rate of registered nurses retiring from nursing practice over the next two decades will significantly reduce the supply. This reduction comes at the same time as the state's population grows and ages. The registered nurse education capacity in Washington has a large impact on the supply of registered nurses in the state. If the rate of graduation in registered nursing does not increase, projections show that supply in Washington will begin to decline by 2015. In contrast, if graduation rates increased by four hundred per year, the supply of registered nurses would meet estimated demand by the year 2021.
(3) Subject to specific funding to support up to fifty full-time equivalent students in a bachelor of nursing program, the University Center of North Puget Sound, in partnership with the University of Washington-Bothell, shall offer a bachelor of science in nursing program with capacity for up to fifty full-time students.