Meeting Nursing needs

New Mexico grapples with a shortage of nurses, the NMSU School of Nursing in the College of HEST is helping to fill the gap. 

Over the past three years, the school’s enrollment has increased by 35 percent. Last year, the school graduated 150 students. And this year, it’s working to boost the number of graduates from the Bachelor of Nursing program and grow enrollment in the graduate program.

“In 2018, we were enrolling around 126 new students a year, and by 2022, we were enrolling about 180 new students,” says Alexa Doig, director of the NMSU School of Nursing. 

Enrollment for the current academic year remained about the same compared to the previous year, Doig says, partly because of laboratory space and clinical site limitations. The school’s Skills and Simulation Center, which contains three lab rooms and two simulation rooms with attached debriefing space, is currently undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation.

“We are committed to future enrollment growth when the Skills and Simulation Center remodel is complete,” she says.

The school is also working to create a comprehensive student success program called “SON Cares” to improve student retention, graduation and licensing exam pass rates. The program would provide a three-pronged approach to support pre-nursing and nursing students from diverse backgrounds, with a special focus on first-generation college students and underrepresented minorities in the nursing workforce.

“We’re trying to increase retention graduation and our licensing exam pass rates, so that we can get more nurses out and graduated faster,” Doig says.

A 2020 report from the University of New Mexico found that New Mexico needs more than 6,200 registered nurses to meet demand. Doig says the workforce shortage is the result of multiple factors. Key contributors include a shortage of nursing faculty across New Mexico and the country and persistent RN retention issues exacerbated by the stresses of working amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s a lot of attention now on nursing education and trying to produce more nurses,” she says. “However, we are never going to be able to fill the gap unless hospitals can retain nurses.”

In early 2022, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law legislation to address nursing shortages in the state. The new legislation included $15 million for expanding enrollment in nursing programs and $30 million to endow nursing faculty positions.