A $1 million grant from the Kansas Board of Regents is headed to the Kansas Nursing Workforce Center to kickstart efforts to fix the shortage of nursing students and nurses throughout the state. With enrollment in Kansas nursing programs down 38% over the last decade, the Kansas Nursing Workforce center is working on several projects designed to increase interest in nursing and boost applications to nursing schools throughout the state.
Barbara Macarthur, Director of the Kansas Nursing Workforce Center, says the nursing shortage across Kansas has rural hospitals in a particularly vulnerable spot. A persistent shortage of nurses means that Kansas patients are at risk of not getting the care they need. The $1 million Kansas Nursing Pathways Project will also fund a report analyzing the relationship between nursing shortage in the state and its educational programs, providing insight into the best practices and barriers for increasing nursing school applications, enrollments and licensing pass rates.
