Hospitals, schools team up to improve nursing pipeline

It’s a one-two punch for the ages: As nurses left the healthcare field in droves during the Covid-19 pandemic, US nursing schools turned away an increasing number of qualified applicants—setting the stage for years of continued workforce shortages.

Nursing schools denied nearly 92,000 qualified applications for the 2021–2022 academic year—up from about 80,500 in the previous school year and approximately 69,000 in 2017–2018, according to data collected by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). AACN officials attributed the denials, in large part, to insufficient faculty, classroom space, clinical sites, budget cuts, and enrollment capacity.

Meanwhile, the US lost an estimated 100,000+ registered nurses in 2021—the largest drop in four decades and a decline that stemmed largely from younger nurses leaving the profession, according to a 2022 analysis published in Health Affairs. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that about 203,200 nurse jobs will be open each year through 2031.

Faced with the reality of understaffing amid a slowing supply of new nurses, many hospitals and health systems are partnering with academic institutions to bolster nursing program capacity as well as their own future employee prospects.

“When you’re a million-plus nurses short [and] the nursing schools in the United States are turning out about 200,000 graduates a year, the math just doesn’t work,” Eric Wallis, SVP and chief nursing officer at Henry Ford Health, told Healthcare Brew. “We’re not going to, at this point, get out of this hole by simply using the same processes we always used.”

The Michigan-based health system has turned to international recruitment and travel nurses to help offset workforce shortages, he said. But that’s just part of the strategy.

Henry Ford Health teamed up with Michigan State University (MSU) in 2021 to expand nurse education and training opportunities in the region. Under the partnership, Henry Ford and MSU are looking to double the size of an accelerated baccalaureate program in 2023, as well as build a $2.5 billion development that features a “reimagined” academic healthcare campus, including an expanded hospital and new medical research facility.

Henry Ford executives are also examining ways the system can partner with local community colleges, Wallis added.

“We have a whole playbook […] to look at how we expand the pipeline,” he said, noting that it includes advocacy efforts, as well as ensuring academic nursing partners have the instructors, space, and clinical rotations needed to admit students who have been rejected from other programs.

Henry Ford is not alone.

Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS) announced a new partnership in March 2022 with Fairfield University, Gateway Community College, Southern Connecticut State University, and Quinnipiac University. The program aims to graduate at least 557 additional nurses over four years.

“In this partnership we intend to increase the pipeline of nurse graduates, with a special push to encourage more diverse candidates,” Beth Beckman, chief nursing officer for YNHHS, said in a statement. “We will make every effort to innovate solutions so that we no longer turn away qualified candidates who want to become a nurse.”

HCA Healthcare, which operates hospitals and other for-profit healthcare facilities across the US and the UK, meanwhile, announced a $1.5 million partnership with Florida International University’s Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences in April 2022 “to expand its faculty and offer scholarships to increase enrollment and help address the national nursing shortage.”

Still, some advocates argue more must be done to address the nursing pipeline issues.

Cynthia McCurren, who chairs the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses board of directors, lauded President Joe Biden for including nearly $350 million for the nursing workforce in his proposed fiscal year 2024 budget—$32 million of which would be dedicated for nurse education, practice, and retention grants.

“To ensure that pathways into nursing remain strong, greater funding is needed for schools of nursing to meet their mission to prepare the next generation of nurses to serve as clinicians, faculty, researchers, and leaders,” McCurren said in a March statement.