Urgent need for nurses: NJ training high schoolers

👩‍⚕️ The need for nurses grows in New Jersey and the U.S.

👨‍⚕️ An Ocean County school now offers a pre-nursing program

👩‍⚕️ It's for juniors and seniors in high school

TOMS RIVER — The nursing shortage in New Jersey and around the U.S. is intensifying and the need for nurses is more crucial than ever.

Nursing Shortage Statistics

According to a report from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, New Jersey’s shortage of nurses is expected to continue and the Garden State will need 25,000 more nurses in 12 years to meet demand.

The report projects nationwide of nearly 338,000 by the year 2036. New Jersey will see the fourth largest shortage, 25%, or more than 24,000, among all states.

These statistics are not surprising to ToniAnn Ravalli, a pre-nursing instructor at Ocean County Vocational Technical School in Toms River.

COVID-19 rocked the healthcare community, she said. There were many people working in healthcare who left the profession for one reason or another, so there’s been a decrease in the available staff. Some nurses have retired.

“But even without COVID, the population as a whole, Ocean County, New Jersey, the entire country---people are living longer. So, the need for healthcare professionals to provide care is going to continue to grow forever,” Ravalli said.

To help combat the nursing shortage in Ocean County, The Ocean County Vocational Technical School (OCVTS) offers a two-year pre-nursing program for all interested county high school students to prepare them for a career in nursing, she said.

Ravalli, who is one of the two instructors of the pre-nursing program at OCVTS said the program is for high school juniors and seniors.

“The program is designed to get students ready for entering the medical field, and many of the students are planning to continue onto college become licensed practical nurses or registered nurses. So, the content that we cover over these two years gives them a really solid foundation for being successful in their future nursing careers,” Ravalli said.

The First Year

Year 1 of the program is spent doing both classroom and skills laboratory tasks, she said.

The year covers content such as medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, and legal and ethical issues in healthcare. Students will go into the school’s state-of-the-art- patient care laboratory and perform patient care skills that people do daily like making the bed, getting dressed, and brushing their teeth.

Year 2 is the certified nursing assistant curriculum. OCVTS has partnered with the New Jersey Department of Health, so it’s a full nursing assistant program.

“We spend time in the classroom, but the difference is that students will take the skills that they learned in year one and practiced on a mannequin, and they are now going out into a clinical site and performing patient care on seniors in Ocean County,” Ravalli explained.

Upon completion of the two-year pre-nursing program, students will hopefully be CPR certified through The American Heart Association, and be certified nursing assistants through the NJ Department of Health.

OCVTS also has a deal with Rutgers University where their students are eligible to take two different exams, one in year one, and the other in year two, and they are eligible for five college credits. Those credits may be transferred to any college that will accept them so they can further their nursing education, Ravalli said.

Application

Most high school students interested in pursuing a nursing career can start applying to the OCVTS pre-nursing program in their sophomore year.

They can come take tours of the classroom and lab, speak with staff, and really get a feel for what the program is like before they commit to enrolling.

Any junior or senior can enroll in the program. If a student begins the program as a senior in high school, which does happen because of the vo-tech’s long waiting list, they will have the opportunity to return for their second year of the program as a post-secondary student, Ravalli said.

To apply, visit the OCTVS website.

Another option is to speak with your high school guidance counselor, which Ravalli highly recommends.

All of the high schools in Ocean County are aware of the pre-nursing program at OCTVS, and the guidance counselors can direct students with when it’s time to apply and how to do those applications, she said.

No Regrets

Ravalli completed this pre-nursing program when she was in high school years ago. She has been in the healthcare field for 22 years and has been a nurse for 12 years.

“This program is an incredible, incredible opportunity for our high school students in Ocean County. Anyone looking to go into nursing, this is where you want to be,” Ravalli said.

So much of the content in this program will be repeated in more depth in college. But she warns that college-level nursing courses are fast-paced and students must meet their high criteria continuously.

“So to be able to get a sneak peek into what nursing school is like, and to start to get your wheels turning, and to start to interact with real-life patients, that is an incredible advantage for individuals who have no experience going into nursing school for college,” Ravalli said.

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