Parade Magazine recently discussed the nursing shortage, citing the very same reason that I’ve frequently mentioned here on this site: not enough nursing teachers. Which means not enough nursing classes. Which means not enough students can graduate from nursing school to replace all of those registered nurses who are leaving the field.
Nationally, the article says, 42,866 qualified applicants were turned away from nursing school programs last year. That is very unfortunate; think how much better off patients everywhere would be if all of those qualified, eager nursing school applicants had been accepted. Eventually, of course, some of those applicants are going to get discouraged and give up and seek other fields.
Before they do, of course, I would suggest that they explore some alternative methods of getting past the nursing school waiting lists.