James Bernal / The Hechinger Report
Originally published on December 21, 2020 4:02 pm
At a time when the pandemic has exposed a growing shortage of nurses, it should have been good news that there were more than 1,200 applicants to enter the associate degree program in nursing at Long Beach City College.
But the California community college took only 32 of them.
North of here, California State University, East Bay isn t enrolling any nursing students at all until at least next fall.
Higher education was struggling to keep up with the skyrocketing demand for nurses even before the COVID-19 crisis. Now it s falling further behind.
James Bernal/The Hechinger Report
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toggle caption James Bernal/The Hechinger Report
Student nurse Gail Powers outside the College Medical Center in Long Beach, Calif. James Bernal/The Hechinger Report
At a time when the pandemic has exposed a growing shortage of nurses, it should have been good news that there were more than 1,200 applicants to enter the associate degree program in nursing at Long Beach City College.
But the California community college took only 32 of them.
North of here, California State University, East Bay isn t enrolling any nursing students at all until at least next fall.
Higher education was struggling to keep up with the skyrocketing demand for nurses even before the COVID-19 crisis. Now it s falling further behind.