He 2024 Nursing Workforce Report is out and in Idaho, even with increases in the number of graduates across the state, there simply do not appear to be enough nurses to keep pace with the need, according to the Idaho Nursing Center.

Cyndy Donato of Kootenai Health said, “Idaho’s nursing landscape faces challenges due to a growing population and increasing retirements.”

Looking at the big picture of hiring practices across the agency, Donato said Kootenai Health has been focusing efforts on retaining long-term staff and reducing the number of traveling nurses.

In the new nursing report, as of June 2024, the workforce consisted of 22,845 registered nurses.

While this represents an increase of 1,708 registered nurses from 2022, it still does not meet the state’s health care demands.

About 7% of Idaho’s RNs and LPNs have also reached retirement age, further impacting workforce availability.

In a previous report by The Press, NIC President Nick Swayne noted that problems recruiting and retaining faculty in the nursing program are a huge factor in the ability to expand to meet the need for nurses at the local and state level .

Although NIC has room to increase nursing cohorts from 40 to 60 students per semester, the university needs one nursing instructor for every 10 students, but that staffing goal has been difficult to remedy due to current compensation rates.

Erlene Pickett, dean of nursing and health professions at NIC, said applications finally began to increase after nursing programs were hit during the early difficulties of the pandemic.

“We produce a lot of nurses and they still need more and we have almost twice as many qualified students as we have space for,” Pickett said.

Having recently sent acceptance letters to students, he said this newest group is one of the strongest the program has seen since before COVID.

Within the clinical portion of the nursing program, the NIC is also trying to avoid overburdening local hospitals.

“There are simply not enough clinical placements to sustain that model, so we are trying to find more creative ways to get students to have a meaningful clinical experience,” Pickett said.

NIC has formed a group to strategize on how to meet the needs of student health providers in a health ecosystem recovering from the turmoil of the past four years.

“The nurses are tired,” Pickett said.

To try to meet instructor needs, the university and Gov. Brad Little have requested an increase in instructor employee compensation to address the staffing gap.

Having grown up watching his mother work as a kidney transplant nurse, Mike Baker, CEO of Heritage Health, has a sweet spot for those working in this field. He expressed gratitude for programs like NIC’s for bringing new nursing graduates into local healthcare providers.

“We had too many people leave the field too quickly and it breaks my heart to see that. “There is a better path for nursing, but we have to show it to people, that is where we are putting our energy,” Baker said. “You start to see the joy return to their eyes because it’s a different experience.”

Making the number of new nurses entering the industry better match the population they serve is something she considers a top priority.

“We feel the pressure and the state has to figure out how to fund the instructors because it’s a big problem,” Baker said.

No matter what, the nursing profession has always prided itself on the idea that it will take care of everyone. Baker said it’s time for the healthcare industry to extend that support to its nurses.

“You see what they put into their jobs,” Baker said. “We have to do better for them.

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Staff writer Kaye Thornbrugh contributed to this report.

Former NIC student Kira Rahman in an obstetrics simulation lab in NIC’s Meyer Health and Sciences building on February 17, 2023.

Former NIC student Janae Walcker practices in a nursing lab in NIC’s Meyer Health and Sciences building on Jan. 27, 2023.