Local schools train hundreds of new nurses every year, yet CNY sees a shortfall of nearly 360 nurses annually
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Nightingale College estimates the current nursing shortage at an 8% deficit for RNs and 20% for LPNs. The supply of new nurses minted this year will still leave RNs with a 10% shortage and LPNs with a 20% shortage.
“Local nursing programs are graduating a significant number of new nurses each year. However, current output is not sufficient to fully alleviate the regional nursing shortage,” said Gina Bradley, doctor of nursing practice, interim dean of St. Joseph’s College of Nursing, director of nursing professional development at St. Joseph’s Health Hospital.
She said that based on workforce demand projections, the Central New York region needs approximately 780 new registered nurses annually. However, only about 420 new RNs are currently being produced. That leaves a shortfall of nearly 360 nurses annually.
“Even with strong local educational partners, this shortfall cannot be resolved by any single institution,” Bradley said.
A variety of factors have long since fueled the shortage, including massive numbers of retirements, since approximately one million RNs older than 50. Burnout also affects the number of nurses. During the pandemic, 20% of all healthcare workers, including nurses, left healthcare, which exacerbated the shortage that existed before COVID-19. Overall, the career’s stress, shifting schedules (especially at hospitals) and long hours also contribute to burnout.
Meanwhile, the demand for nursing climbs as aging baby boomers require more care for age-related chronic conditions and acute health issues.
“Addressing the gap will require coordinated efforts between academic programs and healthcare systems to expand capacity, improve outcomes and strengthen the transition from education to practice — ultimately ensuring high quality care for our community,” Bradley said.
Some people who want to study to become nurses struggle to access nursing school because they’re working full time. St. Joseph’s College of Nursing and St. Joseph’s Health Hospital plan to launch a new day program and an evening and weekend program in January 2027. The organizations also plan to expand online educational options.
Cynthia Arcuri, chairperson and professor in the Nursing Department at Onondaga Community College, said that their flexible programs have been helpful in attracting students with work conflicts. The programs include day or evening hours, part-time school and programs that form “almost a stepladder to come in at one level and work at increasing your training,” Arcuri said.
Many people who would like to study to become a nurse face not only financial barriers regarding tuition, but the need to continue to work while studying. Onondaga Community College is part of the SUNY system which operates the SUNY Reconnect program, which allows students who do not have a previous degree to return to school for high-need careers — including nursing — with free tuition.
“That sparked a lot of people who were interested but for finances they could not manage coming back,” Arcuri said. “That is bringing quite a bit of interest.”
New York’s Healthcare Workers for Our Future Scholarship (www.governor.ny.gov/programs/healthcare-workers-our-future-scholarship) “provides a two-year scholarship to approximately 500 selected recipients covering tuition, room and board and other related expenses in an approved program of study at any approved New York state public or private college or university.”
The degrees included cover the career path of registered nurse, respiratory therapist, clinical laboratory technologist, radiologic technology and surgical technology.
Another barrier to pursuing careers in nursing is the availability of education. Nursing schools turn away more than 65,000 qualified applicants from nursing school annually, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing because schools lack sufficient educators to teach them.
“We don’t have enough people who are qualified to instruct,” Arcuri said.
Becoming a nurse educator requires further education and educators make far less money than care providers.
“A lot of our full-time faculty provide acute care when they’re off from the college,” Arcuri said. “We rely heavily on adjunct faculty who most of the time have a full-time career in healthcare and teaching is a part-time job.”
One perk of working as a nurse educator is that the schedule is more consistent than in working bedside.
Teaching hospitals have far too few slots at their facilities for their students’ clinical residencies, say nothing of other area schools that are instructing future nurses.
“We don’t have endless space, especially in things like pediatrics, obstetrics and psychology,” Arcuri said. “We lack clinical space. There is a limit as to how many we can take in and how many we can manage based on how many floors at local hospitals we can use for clinicals. A lot of our workforce works in the doctor’s office. We have an agreement in that for medical assisting and home health. We can do small experiences in out patient, but it has to be the majority in acute care.”
Most nurse education is based in bedside care in hospitals as the foundation for nursing care. The industry is shifting to simulation models, as New York permits 30% of clinical experience may take place in these environments.
Onondaga Community College has expanded its simulation lab to accommodate more students.
“It uses lifelike mannequins and students have to work through patient presentation and a change in status and they have to work through what to do,” Arcuri said. “It closely mimics clinical experience.”
As another means to combat the nursing shortage, many hospitals are working at recruiting high school students to healthcare roles. Many young people have not considered nursing as a career.
“The hospitals are reaching out and enquiring about talking to and recruiting students,” Arcuri said. “The hospitals are always interested in speaking with graduates, they’re all marketing for different perks when they sign on. I set up opportunities to speak with students. We have job fairs where employers come to talk to students and I believe they have a health professions fair as well.
“We have increased enrollment when and where we could to bring in more students.”
Many students are excited to learn that many medical specialties permit nurses to learn on the job beyond their basic nursing skills.
Another factor in the nursing shortage is retention and workforce attrition. As more nurses move to other careers or other organizations from one healthcare organization, those tough-to-fill spots remain unfilled and can cause the hospital to reduce its capacity and have fewer beds open since they lack sufficient caregivers to staff them.
American Nurses Foundation states that within their first few years working at a hospital, 30% of RNs leave.