KENT, Ohio — Kent State University's College of Nursing has more than 1,600 undergraduate nursing students on campus this fall — the most in 10 years — to help combat the ongoing national nursing staffing shortage.
"For the first time since COVID, we had more students than we had seats for," Interim Dean of the College of Nursing Tracy Motter said.
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As a result, nursing has become the most popular major at Kent State, and the freshman class of about 400 full-time nursing students on the Kent campus is the most they've had since 2017.
To help grow enrollment, Kent State has also begun accepting students who may not have completed every prerequisite in chemistry, biology and algebra, as long as their GPA meets standards. The university then works to bring those students up to speed.
"Not everybody has that — or maybe they couldn't take it or didn't take it," Motter said. "As long as their GPA is good, they can still come to the college of nursing and be a nursing student, so we got an extra 55 students because of that."
A federal report from last December projects a shortage of 267,330 registered full-time nurses by 2028, driven in part by an aging Baby Boomer population and many living longer than ever before.
"There's a huge nursing shortage — there are nursing shortages that wax and wane for hundreds of years, but now it has quadrupled," Motter said. "So you have decreased people available to be a nurse, more people that need a nurse, healthcare that's expanding and it's like the perfect storm. Now, we're coming back."
Earlier this year, News 5 visited Kent State as it unveiled its new virtual reality and artificial intelligence simulations to students.
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"The VR lab is a lot more interactive, and you can actually talk to your patient and have them move for you," junior nursing student Hanna Barnes said.
For Barnes, the growth in Kent's nursing program signals hope for a profession stretched to the limit.
"We need nurses, there's a lot of nurse burnout right now," Barnes said.
While total enrollment numbers are still being calculated, Kent State also reports its largest incoming class of first-year, full-time architecture students — 175 students — the largest in 25 years.
Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard, on Facebook ClayLePardTV or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com.
