New Jersey nursing school enrollments are up but can’t keep up with nurse vacancies.

As more nurses leave the medical field because they are burned out from the pandemic, a new generation is getting ready to fill their shoes. But experts say a new graduating class is not enough. “When I went into the hospital, everything that I was learning from the last 2 ½ years I saw from my own eyes and I was like, ‘Wow, this is what I’m going to do,’” says Rutgers nursing student Lana Hamedeh. Hamedeh says that the pandemic hasn’t scared her away from a career in nursing. She says that it has actually pushed her to work harder. And this mindset is encouraging more people to do the same. “Last year at the height of the pandemic, applications of the school of nursing for undergrad – people wanting to become nurses – was up 25%,” says Linda Flynn, dean of Rutgers University School of Nursing. “And this year it’s up another 12% from that.” To read the full story.