To train more nurses, we need more educators

I have been in the field of nursing and nursing care for over 40 years. Although being an educator nurse is an enriching and significant experience, this also opens my eyes to a growing threat to our health system that decision -makers must attack quickly.

In the United States, history is the same: we are in the midst of a serious shortage of nurses – and not only in our hospitals, our doctors or our clinics. The pipeline that forms and prepares new nurses is in trouble, and people outside the nursing profession do not always see this side of the problem.

Here is the truth: we have a lot of intelligent and capable people who want to become a nurses. Each year, national programs receive applications from eager students who are passionate, prepared and ready to serve. And each year, these programs are forced to refuse too many of them. In 2024, more than 80,000 qualified applications were repressed due to programs with insufficient teachers, clinical investment sites, tutor or class space to accept each applicant who meets or exceeds his standards.

This problem is frustrating and heartbreaking. And it is also completely avoidable – especially if Washington leaders included in more detail the challenges faced by the workforce and the nursing educators in America.

I applaud the Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Susan Collins (R-ME) for having recognized the urgency of this problem and defending the law on the train plus nurses (S. 547) in the American Senate. This bipartite bill aims to resolve the heart of this issue. I urge congresses legislators to support and transmit this well -necessary solution as quickly as possible.

As a former educator / nursing leader and now nursing director of an educational nurse technology company which supports more than 60% of the country’s prelicensive nursing programs, I hear colleagues daily who are worried about the nursing pipeline. The programs, large and small, rural and urban, are stretched. Experienced educators retire, and it is difficult to recruit new ones when faculty wages cannot compete with what nurses gain in clinical roles. In addition to this, some educators may have limited access to technology that can fill resources and improve their efficiency and capacity. It is not surprising that schools are forced to refuse qualified candidates.

The law on nurses Train More would help to take up these challenges by directing the American Department of Health and Social Services (HHS), as well as the US Labor Department, to examine nursing programs to identify opportunities to increase teachers in nursing schools on a national level, in particular in poorly served communities. This bill would also help strengthen the career paths of nurses who have over 10 years of clinical experience to become teachers in nursing schools.

Above all, the law on nurses Train More would also support the long-term care community, a sector particularly in difficulty due to the shortage of labor. In fact, the sectors of life and care for the elderly will need 660,000 more workers across the country by 2033 to meet the growing demand for long -term care. The law on nurses Train More will help encourage and increase the nursing pipeline through approved practical nurses (LPN) – which are crucial part of the long -term care workforce – to become authorized nurses (RNS).

This bill is not a question of policy. It is a question of responding to the shortage of nurses who threatens to destabilize our entire health system. It is a question of ensuring that a student who wants to pursue a career in nursing is not unnecessarily repressed. And it is a question of ensuring that the training of the next generation of nurses has the support they need to continue doing this work.

We burn our current workforce while putting the touch of the next generation of nurses. This should all alarm us.

For Congress: Passing the law on the train plus nurses is an essential step that we can take to change this. He will not resolve everything overnight, but he will issue us in the right direction – with data and strategy, we can position nursing programs to increase and develop registration while controlling students’ costs, encouraging teachers and graduate of confident and competent nursing graduates.

We have passionate students ready to serve. We have experienced educators ready to teach. Let us ensure that our systems are ready to help them succeed.

Photo: Asisei, Images Getty

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