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Nursing Program Capacity and Student Success
One key strategy for addressing the nursing workforce shortages is to grow the pipeline of well-prepared graduates entering the field. Yet every year nursing programs are unable to accept all qualified candidates due to constraints in faculty, fiscal resources, and clinical placements. Current and prospective nursing students also face financial, geographical, and academic barriers to access and succeed in nursing school.
In 2023, WICHE held roundtable discussions with stakeholders from nursing schools, state nursing workforce centers, boards of nursing, nursing associations, and employers in the West to learn more about what states and institutions are doing to address these challenges. In forthcoming briefs, WICHE staff will highlight the strategies that institutions and states are undertaking to mitigate challenges in growing the nursing workforce and investing in student success.
Issue Briefs
This series of briefs highlight the challenges that institutions and states in the West are facing in expanding access and capacity at nursing schools across the West. A key issue institutions face in expanding capacity for nursing students is shortages in clinical placements for students across all levels of nursing. Roundtable participants also shared that students face structural and financial barriers to accessing and succeeding in nursing school. These briefs highlight strategies used by institutions, states, and federal government to support the development of the next generation of the nursing workforce.
The examples and strategies shared in these briefs, in addition to other examples from across the West and the nation, can be found on the Resources page.
Expanding Capacity
September 13, 2023
This brief looks at challenges nursing schools face in accessing clinical placements for students across all levels of nursing and highlights strategies used by institutions, states, and federal government are implementing to help expand capacity to enroll and educate more students.
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Nursing Student Access & Success
September 13, 2023
This brief describes the structural and financial barriers that nursing students face in accessing and succeeding in nursing school and highlights the strategies that institutions and states are implementing to support students with a specific focus on expanding opportunities for rural students and rural workforce development.
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