After losing so many nurses during the pandemic, the state is trying to encourage people to stay by waiving renewal fees for nursing licenses. U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell says nurses and physician assistants were among the unsung heroes when COVID-19 was at its worst.
“They kept America whole at an enormous personal cost. I don’t know if we’ve thanked you enough. They are perhaps the true heroes of those tragic years,” said Pascrell (D-9th), who was at Seton Hall’s College of Nursing to mark a federal grant awarding it more than a million dollars for training and equipping the next generation of medical professionals.
New Jersey has as many as 13,000 job openings for nurses, according to one job listing website.
“It’s nice to hear that there’s so many jobs available for nurses, especially as I’m looking for one. However, it’s a bit discouraging because it does mean that there all of these openings, which means we have a shortage of nurses, which is a problem. It’s going to have effects on patient care,” said Zoe Greene, nursing student.
