Healthcare systems desperately need more nurses. However, for the first time in twenty years, nursing school enrollment in the U.S. declined in 2022 (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2022). The 1.4 % decrease has been attributed to nurse burnout, staffing shortages, and the impact of the Covid pandemic on perceptions of working in healthcare professions (Robbins, 2023). Decreases in student enrollment are occurring amidst rising healthcare costs and organizational expenditures, staffing deficits, nurses retiring from the workforce, workplace violence, and increasingly low numbers of nursing faculty (Fawaz et al., 2018; Haddad et al., 2023). This multifactorial cascade complicates the search for a solution.

Some recommendations for increasing student enrollment have included shifting attention toward schools of nursing and addressing faculty shortages. For example, there are 2166 nursing faculty vacancies in the U. S. across higher education institutions with baccalaureate and/or graduate degree programs (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2022). This figure has increased from 1637 vacancies in 2019 (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2019). Declining student enrollment and increasing faculty and clinical nursing shortages are closely intertwined and need resolution to ensure safe and effective patient outcomes.