Recent data shows approximately 47,000 registered nurses are actively practicing in Washington, but new practitioners are still sorely needed. A 2011 University of Washington study of registered nursing in the state projected a job vacancy rate of 13.6 percent by 2031, representing more than 12,000 unfilled nursing positions in hospitals, ambulatory clinics, residential care facilities

In 1872, the first class of nursing students began training at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston, Massachusetts. Since that time, nursing schools around the Bay State have been hard at work, preparing students for careers in a variety of healthcare settings, such as hospitals, nursing homes and doctors’ offices. Nursing

More than 25 percent of the current nursing workforce is within 5 years of retirement, according to a 2016 survey by the Illinois Center for Nursing, which emphasizes the need for new nurses statewide. In order to meet this demand, nursing schools in Illinois are hard at work educating the next generation of RNs and LVN/LPNs

Florida’s need for nurses first boomed in the 1800s, when conditions like yellow fever, smallpox and cholera broke out around the state. Unofficial boards of health scrambled to create an organized system to mitigate the death toll, and enacted their first nursing practice act in 1913. Since then, healthcare in Florida has grown dramatically, with

According to the New Jersey Collaborating Center for Nursing, the majority of nurses in the state are employed by hospitals, though many nursing professionals instead find employment at hospices, home health agencies, nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities. No matter where nurses in New Jersey decide to work, however, they need postsecondary education and hands-on training so

In 1876, Civil War nurse Jane Wilkes was instrumental in establishing St. Peter’s Hospital in Charlotte, which was the first civilian hospital in North Carolina. Before that point, nurses either worked at Confederate or Union hospitals run by the military, or at “Wayside Hospitals” that were organized by the nurses themselves. Since then, the healthcare

In response to the need for nurses after the Civil War, philanthropist Louisa Lee Schuyler established a nursing school at Bellevue Hospital in 1873 — the very first nursing school in the United States. Since that time, the demand for nurses has continued to grow. As of 2018, registered nurses are the largest sector of

In 2003, David Hathcock was a homeless veteran who was working as a bed washer. He was encouraged to consider nursing school when he began cleaning rooms as a housekeeper, and he used online tutorials for three months to learn the math skills he needed to enter the LPN program at Pulaski Tech. Through hard

Mary Carson Breckinridge was a nurse midwife who was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1881. She helped develop American nurse midwifery and championed the importance of bringing nursing care to rural areas. In 1925, she founded the Frontier Nursing Service, a public health organization that sent nurses on horseback to reach families who would otherwise

Established in 1909, the University of Minnesota School of Nursing is recognized as the first continuously operating nursing program on a university campus. Dr. Richard Olding Beard, a professor of physiology, helped create the School of Nursing after recognizing the value of nursing and professional education for women. The school’s first baccalaureate degree program began