TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Across Tucson, hospitals are in need of nurses. Banner Health, Carondelet Health Network Hospitals, and Tucson Medical Center all have over 100 openings for nurses right now.
The University of Arizona is helping to fill the need for nurses. Their College of Nursing is seeing an increase in applications for their programs.
Each year the program can add 452 new students, according to Connie Miller, the Associate Clinical Professor and Chair of General Nursing and Health Education Division, said. She added that they are trying to expand the program, but that it is difficult.
"It's a challenge for nursing programs to find adequate clinical spaces for the numbers of students we'd like to admit," Miller said. "We would grow our programs tomorrow if we could assure that we had plenty of clinical spaces to train all of the students. "
The clinical programs are critical to gaining hands-on experience.
"It's different to read how to do a skill in a book and then come here and deal with patients," Mariah Vasquez-Gilven, a University of Arizona student working at Tucson Medical Center, said. "It's crucial to what we are doing to practice skills at the bed side."
One of the things she likes about the profession is the job security. The need for nurses is expected to increase by 9% throughout this decade, according to the bureau of labor statistics.
The University of Arizona recently added a new program in Gilbert to bring in more students. If you are interested in the programs, click here.
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