Private sector steps up to provide nursing needs

While doctors get the headlines and the glory, nurses are the glue that keeps our medical system healing. And California has a shortage of them. According to a November tally by Nurse Journal, our state employs 325,620 registered nurses for our 39 million people, a per capita rate of 8.34 per 1,000. By contrast, Massachusetts stands at 13.48 and Missouri 11.4.

To stem the shortage, students increasingly are choosing private nursing colleges over public schools. CalMatters reported in 2021 nearly 64,300 students applied for just 16,600 spots in programs for associate, bachelor’s and master’s programs. “About 55% of those spots were at private institutions,” they note.

The major difference is cost. CSU and UC nursing programs average total tuition of $39,000, while for private schools it’s $130,000. Unlike in some other fields, newly graduated nurses can fairly quickly pay down costly loans. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics pegged California R.N. salaries for May 2022 at $133,340 a year, with an hourly mean wage of $64.10.

However, we see this as a problem for which there is an ongoing solution. In the past seven years, 11 new private nursing programs have started up. “The private option is a better program with better professors,” Sally Pipes, president of the Pacific Research Institute, told us. “The private training will offer better employment opportunities at better facilities.”

We need more schooling options for aspiring nurses, not fewer. Where the public sector fails, the private sector should be encouraged to fill the gap.

Another way to help bring more nurses to patients is to pay them higher salaries. Unfortunately, in 2023 Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 525, raising the minimum wage to $25 by 2027 for all medical employees, including gardeners and gift-shop workers. The governor’s own Finance Department calculated it would cost state health programs alone $4 billion more a year. Where will the money come from? Well, some possibly from reducing nurses’ salaries, or cutting the number of RNs.

The boom in private nursing schools is a model for moving more education to the private sector.

Markets are the best way to meet demands, including for health care.