More Nurses in School?

[mednurse]

Several na's that I work with are student nurses, and they are telling me that the biggest nursing classes ever (for their school) are graduating this year and next. Is this happening where you are? I'm in IL.

[iliel]

In Vegas, in a matter of a year, they uped the number of students per semester from 30 to 64. That's a lot of students for one school. There are also two other nursing programs in town!

[roxannekkb]

I've read that enrollment in nursing schools was up about 8%. However, we also have to realize that the economy really sucks right now, and healthcare is a pretty safe bet for a job. The same thing has happened before. In a down economy, nursing and other health jobs grow in appeal.

What needs to be seen is how nursing school enrollment does once the economy picks up, if the IT industry starts to boom again, and so on. Traditionally, interest in nursing has its ups and downs, and they are usually in step with the general economic conditions.

[TinyNurse, RN]

The class that will grad in 2004 will start with 85 whereas my class only started with 80. we graduated with 58 that includes the 19 LPNs that entered senior year.

xoxo

Jenni

[debralynn]

The LPN class I just finished started with 30. They usually only take 20. We proudly graduated 26!