LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — A new generation of future nurses is here.
“Since kind of the start of the pandemic, we have seen a really strong interest in all of our health care programs, especially nursing," said William Rhinier, the director of admissions at the Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences.
These individuals are looking to provide help to other healthcare workers on the frontlines of COVID-19.
“Really exciting to see our students, our future healthcare workers, wanting to be a part of the cause, to ensure that we’re getting past this, and also being a part of how they can help in the future as well," said Rhinier.
These future healthcare workers also want to help fill the gap as hospitals across the United States deal with a nursing shortage.
“We’re seeing people that have that mentality of I wanna do this now, I wanna be involved, and I wanna help overcome this nursing shortage, but I also want to help in just taking care of people, and in helping taking care of our community," said Rhinier.
While the Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences is seeing more interested students apply to become nurses, the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association says they have been seeing less of a rise compared to years prior.
“If you were to look back three or four years, we saw a significant rise in the number of students coming into nursing programs, we’re not seeing quite that same number now," said Betsy Snook, The CEO of The Pennsylvania State Nurses Association.
The association says they remain hopeful.
“We have to be talking to our legislators, we have to be talking to folks that can provide scholarships, we have to look at different ways to assist people to get into the nursing profession," said Snook.