Maine desperately needs more nurses. A lot more. Current projections indicate a statewide shortage of 3,200 nurses by the year 2025.

If we don’t address this daunting challenge, the outcome could be devastating, affecting the very care all of us receive in hospitals, health care facilities, clinics and medical offices across Maine.

The public universities of Maine, in partnership with hospitals like Mid Coast Hospital, are responding. Together, we have developed an aggressive plan to double nursing enrollment in every corner of the state, but part of the solution relies on your support of Question 4 on the November 6 ballot.

Question 4 would invest more than $12 million in nursing initiatives at our public universities across the state.  At USM, for example, passage of Question 4 would provide resources to build out an additional four-bed high fidelity simulation center. That investment alone would enable us to graduate an additional 250 nurses every five years.

At other campuses, Question 4 would allow for the expansion of science labs and nursing classrooms to graduate more nurses, especially in our rural areas where the nursing shortage is most acute.

There are a couple of additional reasons why targeting nursing investments to our public universities makes a lot of sense.

First, as the challenges of health care grow exponentially and the role and responsibilities of nurses become more and more complex, Maine’s hospital and health care providers rely on the four-year bachelor degree nursing programs that are offered at our public universities. Hospitals and other employers also value the role of lower-cost technical training opportunities that help to staff other essential positions.

Second, our public university nursing graduates have always been and will continue to be our hospital and health care providers primary pipeline to nurses. Why? Because public university students are overwhelmingly from Maine and they want to stay in Maine.

So by approving Question 4, we are investing in exactly the kind of nursing education our Maine health care providers most need for students to stay in Maine and stave off a looming health care crisis none of us want to face.

If Question 4 only addressed the severe nursing cliff we are facing, it would be worth our support. But Question 4 actually accomplishes much more, addressing Maine’s workforce crisis in several other essential sectors.

Like nursing, the numbers are stark. Right now, there are thousands of jobs in Maine that stand vacant, because employers can’t find qualified applicants. Looking forward, it is estimated that by 2025, Maine employers will need 158,000 additional workers with a postsecondary degree or credential.

This workforce crisis stifles economic growth and prevents employers from growing their businesses.

In addition to the critical nursing investments made possible by Question 4, the bond measure would also make investments at all seven Maine public universities to support workforce initiatives, as well as related infrastructure improvements essential to student success and Maine’s economic growth.

These workforce initiatives would include investments in new engineering, computer science and cyber security classrooms and labs. These are all fields where Maine employers are poised for substantial growth if they can find college graduates to fill positions.  Right now, they can’t.

If Question 4 passes, however, these investments will enable USM and our sister universities to grow the number of graduates in these important fields, ensuring our Maine graduates are ready to assume good paying jobs where Maine employers need employees.

Question 4, in short, addresses a severe workforce crisis in Maine.  It would address our impending nursing crisis, meet employer needs, provide Maine graduates with good-paying jobs, fuel our economy and prepare Maine for the decades ahead.

In these times where our political parties agree on little, strong bipartisan unity exists on Question 4. Both parties overwhelmingly approved placing Question 4 on the ballot for your approval. Gov. LePage is a big advocate, as are large and small employers, hospitals, community leaders, and students and their families wanting to stay and work in Maine.

Why such broad support? Because who doesn’t want to see our kids get educated here and stay here with great jobs and great opportunities that grow our economy and make sure our families receive the health care they need and deserve.

Please join us in supporting Question 4.

Lois Skillings is president and CEO of Midcoast–Parkview Health, and is a USM nursing graduate.  She grew up in Pownal and graduated from Freeport High School. Glenn Cummings is president of the University of Southern Maine. He grew up in Bath and graduated from Morse High School.