FRANKLIN - Diane Tennant has spent the last six years on what she calls a "spiritual journey." After working as a hospice volunteer through her church, she hopes to care for the elderly full-time as a nurse.

"There are so many people who just want someone to sit and listen to them or hear them," said the 49-year-old mother of four. "It's just important for me to connect with people who might need that."

A shortage of nursing instructors might have kept Tennant from her goal. But a post-secondary licensed practical nursing program offered at Franklin's Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School - which serves students from North Attleboro, Seekonk and the King Philip Regional School District - is providing Tennant and other students with the clinical skills needed to join the profession.

According to 2006 U.S. Department of Labor statistics, Massachusetts, with 76,350 registered nurses, ranks 10th in the nation in statewide nursing staff.

However, it is estimated that as the current nursing staff retires the number will decrease by more than 9,000 nurses by 2010, largely the result of a shortage in nursing faculty, both in schools and hospitals. Susan Conrad, chairwoman and professor of nursing at Framingham State College, cited a 2005 study conducted by the Massachusetts Association of Colleges of Nursing. As of last year, 670 to 1,200 clinical nurse educators were needed to fill increasing demand.

Conrad said the backlog can force students to wait from two to four years to be accepted in nursing schools.

"There are waiting lists of qualified applicants for nursing programs in Massachusetts," Conrad said. "(But) programs cannot fill the need because they do not have both clinical or classroom nursing faculty to teach these students."

Tennant says the Tri-County program, now in its third year, couldn't have come at a better time.

"These kinds of programs need to happen to get more nurses out there," she said.

Tri-County has graduated 50 students, ages 18 to 61, all of whom have taken the Massachusetts Board of Registration practical nursing exam. The program has four part-time and three full-time nursing instructors.

"The mechanisms are in place," said Barbara Renzoni, Tri-County's superintendent-director. "As we start graduating classes of 20, 30, 40 students at a time and this is replicated at these various vocational schools, it will reduce that vacancy factor."

Other statewide vocational schools with post-secondary LPN programs include Assabet Valley in Marlborough; Blue Hills in Canton; Bristol-Plymouth in Taunton; Diman in Fall River; Greater Lowell in Tyngsboro; Southeastern in South Easton; and Upper Cape Cod in Bourne, according to the Massachusetts Department of Education.

Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School in Upton is creating a post-secondary nursing program thanks to a $100,000 grant from the state.

Michael Fitzpatrick, the school's superintendent, said the program wouldn't begin until school officials could study other institutions. Fitzpatrick hopes the program will run in conjunction with Milford Regional Medical Center and Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester. Jane June, a healthcare dean at Quinsigamond, said despite a faculty shortage, the Blackstone Valley program would get more nurses into the workforce.

"There are people that want to become nurses, so if there are programs out there that can meet that need all of that is positive," she said. "There's challenges to it, but are they barriers that can't be met? No."

June said low pay makes it hard to find nursing instructors. According to 2004 American Association of Colleges of Nursing statistics, a doctorate-level nursing instructor earned an average of $56,866, while a master's-level instructor earned an average of $55,725.

Nurse practitioners in Massachusetts made an average of $73,592.

"If I go to work in a healthcare facility, I can probably make 25 percent to 50 percent more than I can in academics," June said.

State Sen. Richard Moore said the Legislature has provided $2 million in funding to the Board of Higher Education to address the issue. Moore, D-Uxbridge, has also re-filed legislation establishing initiatives to increase nurse faculty, recruitment, and financial aid for nursing students.

Yet without a steady supply of instructors to teach growing numbers of nursing students, Moore said efforts would only go so far.

"As the baby boomer generation ages and has more health needs, we'll have more need for nurses," he said. "Even if we can accept every eligible nursing student and get enough faculty to do that, we'll still have a shortage."

Richard Copp, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Hospital Association, says the shortage will worsen unless faculty vacancies are filled. He said post-secondary education programs were important first steps towards correcting the problem.

"None of them by themselves are the total solution," Copp said. "But hopefully fusing all of them together can start to make a real difference in this issue."

IRA KANTOR is a member of the Boston University Statehouse program