For several years now, staffing issues have plagued the health care industry, impacting many upstate facilities. Now, the pool of registered nurses (RNs) in New York state appears to be shrinking, according to a new report highlighting education trends.
The annual report from the University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies shows about 4% fewer RNs graduating since 2021, as some programs struggled to accommodate applicants.
“It’s very difficult,” said CHWS senior program manager Robert Martiniano. “Chemistry, biology, plus the clinical work, and it's very demanding work.”
But there are many who are up for the challenge. Since 2021, nearly 32,000 people have become an RN across the state.
“Graduations declined a little, not by much, and we think it’s because of the pandemic,” Martiniano said. “We want to see another year of graduations to see if they rebound.”
Experts say the trend should be reversed with the rate of applications and acceptances increasing during the same period.
“They’re not able to expand their slots because they just don’t have the faculty and clinical training slots to be able to train new nurses,” Martiniano explained.
It’s resulted in qualified applicants being turned away, but there are some outliers.
“There was some great worry around the pandemic time that the students were not interested in nursing,” Russell Sage College Provost Theresa Hand said. “There were a lot of challenges in the nursing field and still are, but we are seeing more interest now.”
Hand believes the college’s accelerated Bachelor of Science in nursing program makes a difference.
“You enroll, start and finish in 16 months, so that’s very attractive to people,” she said. “It’s for students who already have a Bachelor's degree in a related field.”
For other institutions less fortunate, there are some recommendations to help curb the trend.
“It’s not just one thing it's multiple things” Martiniano said. “It's clinical sites, it's faculty, it's helping students pay for tuition, books and support that all help with the success of graduation.”
It appears most institutions are already making attempts to close the gaps with more than 80% of RN education program deans reporting the addition of adjunct faculty to fill vacancies.