Dr. MayKao Hang, founding dean of the Morrison Family College of Health, spoke with Minnesota Live on KSTP-TV about the national nursing shortage due to retirements and burnout.
She said the new School of Nursing program that is now taking applications for fall 2022 will educate more nurses into the field. However, she said, "Before the pandemic, when we were looking at starting the nursing program at the University of St. Thomas we knew that we could easily double the number of nursing graduates and still not fulfill the workforce need. That gives you a view of how severe it is. The severity is not in all locations and places, there are just in different parts of the state with different workforce shortages and other health professions that go along with nursing on that frontline."
She added that more nurses are especially needed "who look like the people we are now serving, be it central Minnesota or here in the Twin Cities, which is basically becoming a lot more diverse."
