Job demand, good pay spur growth in nursing programs

Chelsey Strickland grew up watching her single mom work long shifts as a nurse at UPMC St. Margaret hospital to provide for her family.

That’s what led the Tarentum resident to enroll in nursing school at 25, despite, two years earlier, having earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.

“I knew that, with nursing, you have that sense of always being secure with your finances. You will always be able to take care of your family,” said Strickland, a Deer Lakes graduate.

Farther south, D.J. Farkas of Connellsville watched his mother do the same thing as he grew up.

“I got the idea from her,” said Farkas, 21, who will finish nursing school this month at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. “I enjoy helping people and making a difference.”

Strickland is scheduled to graduate as a registered nurse (RN) in May after a 22-month program at the AHN Citizens School of Nursing in Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer.

Stickland and Farkes are part of a steep uptick in students across the region flocking to the nursing profession.

The AHN program, which operates a second campus at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood, has seen a 53% spike in enrollment, from 116 first-year students in 2022 to 177 last year.

At the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, numbers of first-year students have climbed from 191 in 2022 to at least 230 this fall, according to communications specialist Nick France.

The UPMC Schools of Nursing have more than 1,000 students across six campuses, according to spokesperson Gloria Kreps.

“Last year, we grew most of our UPMC schools of nursing by 56%,” said Brandy Hershberger, chief nursing officer and vice president of academic affairs.

For fall, there is a waiting list for some of the sites, Hershberger said.

“Enrollment has increased significantly over the past several years as prospective students have explored the opportunities of the profession as well as the tuition incentives,” she said.

Nearly every graduate has multiple job opportunities following graduation and passing the National Council Licensure Exam, which tests the competency of nursing school graduates, Hershberger said.

She credits the enrollment surplus in part to the nature of the profession.

“I believe individuals seek a nursing career as a way to give back and provide essential care, especially with increased patient needs,” she said. “Nursing is a rewarding career that focuses on caring for others, while being a stable profession for future career seekers.”

Career enticements

UPMC has created competitive offerings to generate interest in nurse employment, such as tuition loan forgiveness and, in certain high-need areas, monthly loan repayment and sign-on bonus programs.

The hospital-based schools are alternatives to traditional college programs such as those offered at the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University, which can take fours years to complete to become a registered nurse. While the hospital-based schools allow students to become registered nurses, they don’t offer the bachelor’s or master’s degrees available at college-based schools.

Employment of registered nurses is expected to grow 6% by 2032, faster than the average for all occupations, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More than 193,000 openings for registered nurses are projected each year across the country.

When Farkas graduates, he’ll head right into the workforce as part of the progressive care unit at Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg. On Wednesday, he was at the hospital getting some additional hands-on experience with patients.

“Going into it, it was a little nerve-wracking,” he said. “But the more I’ve done it, the more comfortable I’ve gotten.”

Ruth Tarantine, director of AHN Schools of Nursing, said Pennsylvania will need 160,000 registered nurses by 2030. About 9,000 jobs will need to be filled each year, she said.

While the need for nurses is decades old, the covid-19 pandemic put a dent in the number of nurses across the country. In fact, 2021-22 saw a 3% decline in the number of working nurses after decades of steady increases, according to research published last year by the National Institutes of Health.

Rewarding, but tough

The study found that between one-quarter and one-third of registered nurses surveyed in the two years after the pandemic began were considering leaving their jobs. The percentage of critical care nurses actively considering retirement or a job change during that time was a whopping 67%, the study states.

But fears for safety during the pandemic, while aggravating issues in the nursing industry, were not the root cause of the dip in practicing nurses, the study found.

Instead, most of the more than 54,000 nurses in 45 states who were surveyed pointed to increased workloads, stress, insufficient pay and burnout as the primary reasons they were considering leaving the profession or changing jobs.

Now, in addition to the increasing number of jobs available, increasing pay also is helping to drive the resurgence of nurses.

AHN nursing student Tyler Waltenbaugh of Leechburg pointed to a post-covid pay increase for nurses and job security as reasons to pursue a career in nursing.

“Before covid, there wasn’t a demand like there is now,” said Waltenbaugh, 27, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Edinboro University before pivoting to nursing school. “The money is much better now, and nurses have more opportunities since all the baby boomers are retiring.”

Pay bumps help

After less than two years of school, students graduating from a hospital-based nursing program can begin earning a salary of more than $60,000.

And the industry is undergoing a pay scale increase. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual pay for registered nurses in 2020 was $70,000. In 2023, it was $81,220 a year, or a little more than $39 per hour.

Compensation grows with added certifications, skills and years on the job.

The average pay for a registered nurse in Pennsylvania falls between $63,000 and $80,000, according to salary.com.

A diploma — and a job

A virtual guarantee of a job is helping the cause as well.

One hundred percent of Citizens’ May 2023 graduation class landed full-time nursing jobs, Tarantine said.

“The pandemic showed many individuals that, not only does nursing provide job security, but it also provides endless career pathways,” she said.

Students can opt to work in the emergency department, home care, psychiatry or even fly with helicopter transports.

“In the past, jobs in some of these areas rarely opened up,” Tarantine said. “Now, many nursing graduates are finding it hard to choose where they want to work due to so many offers.

“I believe the uptick in students is largely because students realize that they don’t need to attend a four-year program to become an RN.”

For Waltenbaugh, there always was an itch to work in medicine. A change in majors earned him a degree in strategic communications with which he landed a job in medical sales.

“I was kind of doing something that I liked, but I really still wanted to be with patients,” he said.

“So I just did it,” he said of enrolling in nursing school.

When he graduates in three weeks, Waltenbaugh has a job lined up at AHN Forbes Hospital’s emergency department in Monroeville.

Most of his classmates also have jobs waiting for them.

“If they don’t,” he said, “it’s because they’re waiting to pick.”