COVID drives nursing buzz
Colleges see enrollment numbers rise as virus continues to claim lives
Capital Region colleges are reporting increased interest in their nursing programs even as the COVID-19 pandemic has strained their ability to provide a nursing education.
While college officials couldn’t say for sure what is driving the increased interest, they said there appears to be renewed appreciation for the field after the heroic efforts of nurses and other health care professionals were spotlighted during the worst of the pandemic this spring.
“I almost see it as a renewed awareness of the compassion that’s required of this profession,” said Glenda Kelman, chair
of nursing at the Sage Colleges in Albany and Troy. “Certainly, knowledge and technical skills are absolutely necessary, but they have to be integrated with what we call compassionate caring.
And I think people saw that and saw how necessary it became.”
Kelman said the Sage Colleges have seen a steady increase in applications to their nursing programs, which boast about 650 students at the graduate and undergraduate levels. This fall, 299 students were accepted into undergraduate programs and 104 put down deposits, compared to 229 who were accepted and 86 who put down deposits last fall.
Siena College in Newtonville was hoping to enroll at least 56 students into its Baldwin Nursing Program this fall but wound up admitting 68 — its largest class ever, said Lisa Lally, director of the program.
Initially, Lally thought the pandemic might turn off some people, due to the fear and uncertainty that surrounded the virus as well as the horror stories about personal protective equipment that were circulating on news and social media.
“But what has actually happened is the exact opposite,” she said. “Some students have said it made them want to do something to help out. But generally, people that are coming into the program have wanted to be a nurse and this just kind of made it more urgent for them.”
At Maria College, enrollment grew slightly from 256 students last fall to 274 this fall. That includes nursing students on both the bachelor’s and associate degree tracks, those seeking a practical nurse certificate and general studies students who intend to pursue nursing but need to complete certain prerequisites first.
Dr. Laurie Carbo-porter, dean of nursing at Maria, said the pandemic has definitely increased interest in the profession.
“I think people are seeing nursing for the craft it is, which is the art and science of working with your hands and working with your heart to help others,” she said.
Called to care
Becca Petrucci-little knew from a young age she wanted to be a nurse. Her mother was a nurse at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany, and would bring her along occasionally. She recalls sitting in patient rooms at just 9 or 10 years old, talking to the patients and keeping them company. When she was 15, she began volunteering at a nursing home and eventually became an aide.
“I just knew at a really young age that that was something I wanted to do,” she said.
When the pandemic hit this spring, she was working as an aide during the day for a local assisted living facility and studying at night at Maria for her nursing degree.
She remembers feeling thrilled by the way the community came together during such a harrowing time, and how much residents and families appreciated the health care staff who worked to soothe their stress and anxiety over both the virus and inability to see loved ones.
“My husband said, ‘Isn’t this scary for you? You’re putting yourself at risk,’” she recalled. “And yes, but I don’t feel like that. If anything I feel more compelled to go out and help during this time. And it’s actually kind of cool to feel that way, during such a crazy time.”
Local nursing educators described similar feelings — among both the nursing faculty who worked clinical jobs throughout the pandemic, and among students who seem to be even more called to the profession.
“There’s fear of the virus and it is stressful,” CarboPorter said. “But from what I’ve been seeing and hearing from the faculty and the students is that they feel more a sense of caring than fearing.”
Program strains
For whatever interest it has spurred in the profession, the pandemic has not made educating future nurses easy.
Schools that relied on hospitals and nursing homes to provide clinical experience to their students saw those opportunities dry up in the spring when facilities closed their doors to outside visitors. Petrucci-little’s clinical hospital rotation was suspended from March through August, though she continued to report to her job as an assisted living aide.
While hospitals have reopened clinical experiences for students, they’ve limited the number of students allowed in at any one time — straining the already scarce clinical opportunities for students that existed prior to the pandemic.
The specter of a second wave of COVID-19 infections also has colleges worried these opportunities will be halted once again.
“That’s the biggest scare
for us because everything could shut down tomorrow,” said Jodi Dorrough, chair of Hudson Valley Community College’s nursing department. “So we’re trying to get the students in now as much as possible for clinical and hands-on work.”
The limitations did force schools to get creative.
Siena forged a new partnership with Glens Falls Hospital that’s given students experience in a rural hospital setting. It’s also had students assist local health departments with contact tracing — a “real time, real life case study” in epidemiology and pandemic response that students wouldn’t have gotten otherwise,
Lally said.
While rising interest in the nursing field is welcome given the ongoing nursing shortages both statewide and nationally, nursing schools say it’s not going to be as easy as simply accepting more students.
Schools had a shortage of nursing faculty and competed for clinical opportunities well before the pandemic.
To accommodate any potential growing interest in the field, educators say colleges are going to have to make faculty positions more attractive through pay or other incentives, and regulators will have to be more open to simulated learning experiences as an alternative to tradition
al clinical experiences — especially in areas like the Capital Region where nursing schools outnumber hospitals.
Maria College last year built a 6,500-square-foot teaching and learning facility that features a nurses station, medication room, skills labs, and simulation suite where students can respond to reallife scenarios on mannequins.
“It actually offers more opportunities than a clinical setting because if a student goes to an obstetric ward and spends time caring for the needs of a particular population, they may not see the wide range of birthing experiences that people go through,” Carbo-porter
said. “We can simulate all types of high-risk, lowfrequency situations here.”
Most importantly, educators said, if policymakers and health care organizations want to capitalize on any newfound interest in nursing that arises from the pandemic they should do so by supporting nurses now with adequate PPE, counseling and other supports.
“The reason we all went into nursing is to be that person in the room with the patient at that moment in time they need us,” Lally said. “But without support and without self care, that can get overwhelming. If we want nurses to continue in this profession, we have to remember that.”