TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — According to the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, there will be 28,100 fewer registered nurses in Arizona than we need by 2025.
"I was a teacher and I just had a moment where I was like, you know what, I really want to go into nursing," Katie Valdez, PCC Nursing Student said.
On Wednesday, Pima Community College announced a partnership with Arizona Complete Health. Their partnership provides $400,000 towards a scholarship fund for the school and $100,000 to program development.
The scholarship will be provided to students in need, which is especially important with a huge gap to fill for nursing hires.
"It's so unfortunate that there's such a shortage but through Pima I've met so many fellow students who are going to make incredible nurses," Katie Murdoch, PCC Nursing Student said.
The program graduating around 600 nursing students a semester, leaving an even bigger imprint on our community.
"Each of those students sees 5 patients a day that's 3,000 patients they'll see in this community, 5 days a week, that's over 15,000 patients. Over the course of a year, it's 750,000 patient contacts they'll have," Don Martin, PCC said. "In this one group will have worked on average of 20 years. That's 50 million patient contacts that this one group will have."
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Denelle Veselik is an anchor and investigative reporter for KGUN 9. It's been her dream to tell your stories for the past decade. She is extremely curious and wants to continue to use her storytelling for the greater good. Share your story ideas and important issues with Denelle by emailing denelle.veselik@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram and X/Twitter.
