PROVIDENCE — A special legislative commission formally unveiled its proposal to give educators in the state’s nursing schools an annual $3,500 tax credit, an attempt to keep them teaching so they can make a dent in what the panel said is a looming shortage of nurses in the state.

Commission members contend that Rhode Island will have a shortfall of 1,800 registered nurses by next year, and that the shortage will grow to 6,500 by 2020.

But then the panel spent most of their hourlong State House news conference trying to explain why many nurses, particularly new graduates, are having trouble finding work.

“So where is the shortage?” asked one nurse, who wrote to The Journal after the commission’s projections were made public earlier this month. She said her daughter, a Rhode Island College nursing graduate, has been unable to find work.

“If you go on the Web sites of all of our local hospitals, they are not hiring,” said Constance Kent, a research nurse who had the same reaction after hearing the commission’s estimate. “So we don’t have a shortage of nurses. We have a shortage of people hiring.”

Jane Williams, dean of Rhode Island College’s school of nursing, said the current lack of jobs for new graduates represents an anomaly that will change once the economy turns around.

Then, commission members said, the need for keeping existing nursing faculty and expanding the number of men and women graduating from the state’s schools will be clear.

And Rhode Island’s aging population will only make the need for nurses even more acute.

Ruth Ricciarelli, executive director of the Center for Health Professions at the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, said the current shortage of nurses isn’t obvious because many are working longer hours or putting off retirement, especially if the economic downturn has put a family member out of work or the stock market crash has wiped out their investments.

As a result, 60 percent of the state’s nurses now work full time, up from 40 percent a few years ago, she said. “Instead of nurses working 30 hours, they picked up extra hours. That absorbed some of those jobs that were available.”

And the average age of a nurse in Rhode Island is 50.

“You’re going to see a rapid exit of nurses once the economy turns,” predicted Donna Policastro, executive director of the Rhode Island State Nurses Association. “That aging nurse who is hanging on for dear life is going to leave, retire,” and there won’t be enough people to replace them.

There are, in fact, nursing jobs, said Williams. The vacancy rate for all nursing positions in Rhode Island is 6.8 percent.

But many graduates want to work only the day shift in a hospital or don’t want the less-prestigious nursing-home and home health-care jobs. The vacancy rate was above 13 percent when the legislative committee began its work in 2008.

In the hospitals where there are jobs, officials don’t want to hire new graduates because they can be expensive to train and there is a fear that, once trained, they will leave to take another job, said commission Co-chair Lynne M. Dunphy, of the University of Rhode Island’s College of Nursing.

“Because of the cost [and the economic squeeze hospitals find themselves in] it’s more difficult than ever to train graduates,” she said.

Nurses who teach in Rhode Island nursing schools tend to make far less than nurses working in private-sector jobs. The commission opted to recommend the $3,500 nonrefundable tax credit because it would cost less than dramatically increasing salaries at state-run nursing schools.

The state could lose as much as a half-million dollars per year if the tax credit is passed, but that would be offset by the economic benefits to health-care facilities that hire the graduates, said commission Co-chairman Sen. James E. Doyle II, D-Pawtucket.

Having enough nurses would save hospitals, nursing homes and other health-care facilities millions of dollars in overtime pay, recruitment costs and temporary help, he said.

Even if there are nurses without jobs now, the shortage of nurses, Doyle said, “is going to be a serious issue some day.”

gemery@projo.com