Spectrum News 1
The demand for registered nurses in New York is outpacing the number of people entering the profession, as a new report by the Center for Health Workforce Studies reveals mounting barriers to training and retaining nursing talent across the state.
The state Department of Labor projects more than 17,000 annual openings for registered nurses between 2022 and 2032. The state is currently producing roughly 10,000 new nurses per year — a gap that experts warn will widen if structural problems go unaddressed.
About half of nursing programs reported turning away qualified applicants last year, citing insufficient faculty, shortages of clinical training sites and enrollment caps.
Robert Martiniano, the report’s author, pointed to pay disparities as a root cause.
“When you look at faculty salaries versus bedside salaries, there’s still a huge disparity there,” Martiniano said.