ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Hospitals across New York are dealing with a nursing shortage. So that's why this summer one Rochester university is working to get the next generation interested in the field.

They’re not nurses yet, but students Alexa Durand and Sam Spence are getting a chance to test their skills.  

They are both students at Brighton High School. They’re just some of the dozens of students participating in a weeklong nursing camp at St. John Fisher University.  

“I love helping other people, it’s such a fulfilling feeling," Durand said. "I enjoy bringing smiles to people."

It’s that feeling along with an interest in the medical field that led Durand here. She’s working through a patient simulation and getting a taste of what nursing school would be like.

“It's an experience to see what exactly happens in a hospital, not a lot of people are aware," she said.

New York is projected to face a shortage of almost 40,000 nurses by 2030. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, enrollment in nursing programs decreased in 2023 for the first time since 2000.  

Program leaders at the Wegmans School of Nursing say this camp is one way to get the next generation interested in the profession.  

“Need to be exposed to different areas of nursing," said Karen Parker, the graduate simulation coordinator. "Here are many different areas you can work in nursing."

In the simulation lab, Durand and her team successfully diagnosed their patient. But the best part of the experience is working side by side with what might become her future colleagues.  

“Maybe in the future we will see each other in the hospital working together," Durand said. "You never really know."