LONG BEACH – Friends of Kacia Iles and Shiva Batchu are jealous.

The two Orange County nursing students strolled into orientation Monday a mere few months after applying for a two-year baccalaureate program at California State University, Long Beach. Most of their friends had to wait at least two years to get into nursing schools. Many simply gave up, switched majors and changed their career goals.

But through a new $15 million program of California State University, Long Beach, and Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, students will not have to wait as long for class space to open up. By creating a satellite campus at the hospital, the program will be able to double the number of nursing students CSULB normally teaches in a year. The students also will have access to human patient simulators in a new training facility the hospital is building.

The satellite classes will extend into the summer, meaning the students also will be eligible to get their baccalaur eate degrees in two years instead of three. And if they accept jobs at Long Beach Memorial right out of school, the cost of their books and tuition will be forgiven.

By reducing the wait, the institutions hope more aspiring nurses will be encouraged to get their degrees and enter the work force.

"I applied to Golden West College and was put on the waiting list, somewhere in the 50s," said Batchu, 23, of Fountain Valley. "This will definitely help solve the problem of the nursing shortage."

Nurses are in high demand nationwide, but in California, the problem is particularly acute. A nurse-to- patient ratio law, which went into effect Jan. 1, requires hospitals to staff at least one nurse for every six patients in general surgery. Medical centers are offering everything from loan forgiveness programs to new cars.

But less than half of the 2.7 million licensed nurses in the nation have chosen to work in medical centers, according to SEIU Nurse Alliance, a union for nurses. And hospitals are finding there simply aren't enough nurses coming out of schools to fill the need.

The California Nurses Association, a nurse lobbying group, called the Long Beach program a model for hospitals in the state.

"I think the Long Beach initiative is one of the best models," said Jill Furillo, a registered nurse and Southern California director of CNA.

Iles agreed. She and other students said they can't believe more isn't being done to expand openings in schools. "If there's such a demand, you'd think they'd have more avenues to get these students into classes," she said.

Increasingly, hospitals are opening those avenues. Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills, for instance, pays for an instructor at neighboring Saddleback College.

Tenet, which owns or operates nine Orange County hospitals, gives $1.7 million in scholarships for nursing students and programs nationwide.

"We have to begin focusing on the supply end of the equation," said David Langness, spokesman for Tenet.

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach spends more than $500,000 a year to ensure that at least 36 waiting-list students from local colleges can get into nursing schools, and to allow Hoag nurses to receive their bachelor's or master's degrees. It has funded one new instructor at each of the following: California State University, Long Beach; California State University, Fullerton; Saddleback College; and Golden West College.

Rick Martin, vice president and chief nursing officer at Hoag, said hospitals will likely continue to pay for these programs as the state faces continuing budget cuts for education.

"This is a national nursing shortage, and there is no hope for it turning around soon," said Martin, who also said the private sector can only do so much. "To help head off this health crisis, the government needs to allocate money for nursing schools."

A three-year, $60 million Nurse Workforce Initiative by the state is supposed to lend some help by funding training, recruiting and retention programs. But it seems much of the burden will continue to fall on hospitals to educate their future nurses, said Susan Crockett, nurse work-force initiative coordinate for Long Beach Memorial.

The hospital spends $2 million a month for free-lance nurses to cover the 130 nursing position openings. Although it is putting up $10 million over five years for the program, Crockett says the hospital will likely save much more than that in the long run.