(The Center Square) – Secretary of Labor and Industry Nancy Walker visited the Harrisburg Area Community College today to celebrate National Student Nurse Day and National Nurses Week.
The school’s nursing program is the largest in the commonwealth, where one third of students on all five campuses are studying healthcare and related fields.
“At HACC we are proud to celebrate the dedication and impact of our nursing students and graduates across four campuses,” said Cynthia L. Donell, HACC Associate Dean for the School of Health Science.
Donell said that the school currently has 881 students enrolled in its nursing programs. This week, 186 HACC graduates took the Florence Nightingale Pledge and officially became nurses.
“It’s really a critical moment for us to deal with nursing shortages in Pennsylvania because as we look at an aging population in Pennsylvania, we know that it’s only going to be more acute,” said Walker. “So it’s important that we make critical investments now.”
One such investment is a $5 million Nurse Shortage Assistance program in the budget proposed by Gov. Josh Shapiro. The program would distribute grants to medical providers to repay nurse’s student loans who take on a minimum three-year placement in the state.
The administration has cited a survey from the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania indicating that 14% of nursing positions are currently unfilled. They expect that number to increase with a shortage of 20,000 nurses in 2026.
The shortage compounds problems in the healthcare system, like increased wait times for appointments and a perceived reduction in the quality of patient care. Nurses currently employed by the system are burning out from working extra hours and grappling with increasingly hostile work environments.
“Everyone deserves access to high quality healthcare which includes nurses who know and understand the people, communities and populations they serve,” said Department of Human Services Deputy Secretary Sally Kozak.
The state has seen success with a similar Primary Care Loan Repayment Program, which it hopes to offer a $5 million expansion in the upcoming budget. Of the 219 recipients of these repayments thus far, 78 were nurses.
A Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program is also available through the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, an $18 million investment.
A bill instituting a loan repayment program for rural health care workers, which would include nurses, has passed the House. It’s currently under consideration by the Senate Institutional Sustainability and Innovation committee.
