Combatting the nursing shortage in Pottsville
POTTSVILLE, SCHUYLKILL COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — A shortage of nursing staff has spread across the country and has even made its way here to northeastern Pennsylvania, but a local school is looking to change that.
28/22 News Reporter Emily Allegrucci spoke with the school’s director on how they plan to do it.
A nursing school in Pottsville is expanding its nursing program by adding classes and even moving to a bigger space.
They hope these changes will give everyone the option to become a nurse and help shrink the nation’s nursing shortage.
A once sought-after career now seeing its largest decline in decades.
“I came out of school in ’88 which was the second worst nursing shortage, this is the worst I’ve ever experienced,” said Joseph F. McCloskey School of Nursing Director of Nursing Tina Vanburen.
Vanburen is the director of nursing for the Joseph F. McCloskey School of Nursing in Pottsville and says ever since the pandemic, the entire nation has seen a drastic drop in the number of people who want a career in nursing.
“No one wanted to be exposed to COVID, nobody understood it enough to put themselves at risk or their families at risk and so a lot of people left, a lot of people burnt out, and so now our job is to make sure there are caretakers in the networks,” Vanburen said.
For the first time in its 128 years, the school plans to add an evening and weekend program to the curriculum starting in the fall of 2024, giving more students the chance to become a registered nurse.
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“Our students aren’t just students anymore. They all have families, they all work full-time. It’s a work-life balance trying to figure out how to balance their work life, with their family life, with a school life to better their lives,” Vanburen explained.
Come fall, the nursing school will also be moving into a larger building to accommodate the influx of students that they expect to see.
“We can expand our program, we just didn’t have enough space to hold classes, enough space to do all the things that go along with skills, development, and competencies,” Vanburen added.
The evening and weekend programs will have the same cost, time, and curriculum as the traditional program.
The new classes and new building will allow the school of nursing to continue its mission to educate nurses as they have been since 1895, especially now when it’s needed most.
“The nursing profession is the best profession you could ever choose. You could do anything you want, be anything you want, and be a nurse,” Vanburen continued.
Applications are now being accepted for the fall 2024 semester for the new program and the traditional program.
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