An April 2022 analysis by researchers found that nearly 40 years of mostly steady growth in the supply of nurses was “under threat” from COVID burnout, frustration and early retirements. It estimated that the total nursing workforce had dropped by more than 100,000 from 2020 to 2021.

With the U.S. population diversifying, McCue also realized that if the next generation of caregivers was to look like the people they care for, communities would have to grow their own.

“The research is there,” she said. “Patients have better outcomes when they are cared for by nurses who are from their community.”

But when McCue looked at the nursing pipeline, the biggest barrier for students of color entering the field wasn’t their income or family background. It was the poor quality of their high school education. She thought: Let’s start there.

The school now enrolls 399 students, the maximum its charter will allow. It occupies five stories of an historic brick office building in the heart of downtown Providence, where each morning students from 13 neighboring school districts show up in scrubs.

It uses its per-pupil allowance for charter schools in innovative ways: RINI has no library — thousands of paperback books sit on shelves scattered in hallways throughout the building — and it doesn’t offer sports or music. Students can pursue those interests at their neighborhood schools, and many do, jumping on city buses after school that take them to soccer games and track meets. The institute offers all students a free bus pass.

The school’s laser-like focus is perhaps its greatest strength, said Principal Tammy Ferland, a veteran educator who came to RINI from Cranston High School West, the state’s largest district.

“This is a health care program, a nursing program,” Ferland said. “If you don’t want to be a nurse, if you don’t want to be in health care, then you don’t belong here.”

That focus produces a school culture in which students demonstrably support and care for one another. One morning, sophomore E’Niyah Brown recounted how her father had recently died of heart failure and that she now struggles to keep her grades up while running track and holding down a part-time job. Senior Keilany Collazo leaned over and said, “You’re definitely going to make your father proud.”

Read the full article about nursing shortages by Greg Toppo at The 74.