Michael Bloomberg’s donation of $1 billion to Johns Hopkins University to support medical education goes beyond similar gifts to other medical schools. The Bloomberg gift provides support to students in Hopkins’ schools of nursing and public health, not just in its medical school.
As health professionals and educators, we are thrilled to see philanthropists supporting the future of medical training in the U.S. But as nurses, we are left asking why nursing schools are often left out of philanthropic donations like these, even though nurses are the backbone of the health care system.
The more than 5.7 million registered and practical nurses in the U.S. represent the largest segment of the health care workforce. For 22 years, nurses have been ranked as the most trusted profession in surveys of public opinion. Nurses are lauded as heroes and angels, as was evident during the Covid-19 pandemic when stories of nurses’ professional dedication were frequently broadcast across major news networks. Entire neighborhoods clapped every evening to express their appreciation for the personal sacrifices made by nurses and other essential workers in the name of the common good.
Nurses, however, are not angels. They are highly skilled and educated professionals who spend many years in training, often taking out large loans to support their education. In addition to paying off loans, they have bills to pay, children to feed and educate, and lives to live.
The U.S. health care system depends on nurses to function. They work with patients and their families across the lifespan, from birth to death, and across the continuum of care. Although nurses are the primary providers of care in hospitals and deliver most of the long-term care in the U.S., they serve wherever care needs to be provided, including outpatient and occupational health clinics, homes and schools, mobile vans, the military, retail clinics, barber shops, and on the streets in efforts to meet everyone where they are. Nurses lead health systems, run corporations, and serve the public as members of Congress, state health commissioners, and other roles.
Unfortunately, the nursing profession now finds itself at a significant crossroads. It is anticipated that there will be a deficit of more than 193,000 registered nurses in the U.S. through 2032, and demand for nurses will only increase as the population ages and develops more complex medical needs. Yet nursing schools are struggling to meet these workforce demands. Rutgers University School of Nursing in New Jersey, where we work, turned away more than 1,000 qualified nursing school applicants last year due to a lack of faculty, classroom space, and clinical placements. Across the nation, 78,000 qualified applicants were turned away for many of the same reasons.
An increase in funding for nursing education would help solve this worsening problem. Yet despite the impact of nurses on the nation’s health and well-being, funding for nursing education is often forgotten. Only 1% of the $333 billion given to health care last year from the private sector went to the nursing profession. Likewise, nursing does not receive the same governmental financial support that medical education receives. Unlike graduate medical education, which receives billions of dollars in support from Medicare, Medicaid and others, graduate nursing education receives no such funding. In fact, the U.S. House of Representatives proposed budget decreases funds for nursing education.
To continue producing the number and quality of nurses needed to fulfill the country’s societal pact to provide care for all, including the most vulnerable Americans, nursing education needs significant financial investment, from both federal and state governments and public, private and corporate philanthropies.
If there are other generous donors waiting in the wings, we ask them to consider making gifts to nursing education. It is time to recognize the true worth of nursing by creating a real-life angel fund.
Tracy Vitale, D.N.P, is a registered nurse and associate professor and specialty director for the Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects in the Advanced Nursing Practice Division at Rutgers University School of Nursing. Caroline Dorsen, Ph.D., is a family nurse practitioner and an associate dean and professor at Rutgers University School of Nursing. The views expressed here are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of their employer.