“The concern is urgent”: Dr. Jennifer Mensik Kennedy on Scholarships and the Nursing Shortage

A degree in nursing can be a vital step toward a secure, well-paying career—but a variety of factors are keeping students from completing their education, and contributing to an ongoing shortage of qualified nurses. To explore how scholarships and emergency aid can help keep more students on track, we spoke with Dr. Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, President of the American Nurses Association (ANA), the nation’s largest professional nursing organization, representing 5.5 million registered nurses.

In honor of National Nurses Week, Dr. Mensik Kennedy spoke with Scholarship America’s Chief Growth Officer Abigail Seldin about who today’s nursing students are, what’s pushing them out of the pipeline, and how scholarships and emergency aid can help.

[Current undergraduates working toward an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) or Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) can apply through May 19 for the Brave of Heart Nursing Scholarship]

Who is a nursing student today? Paint us a picture of who’s in these programs—and who is most at risk of not making it to graduation.

When we look at the data, it’s clear that there is still strong, and growing, interest in nursing. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, we currently have more than 265,000 BSN students enrolled across 869 colleges and universities. There are also over 90,000 students in RN to BSN programs nationwide, many of whom have begun their careers with associate degrees from community colleges or technical colleges and are now working to advance their education and professional opportunities.

At the graduate level, there are about 136,000 master’s students, roughly 4,200 PhD students, and more than 42,000 DNP students. On the surface, those numbers sound encouraging, but there are troubling signs underneath.

First, nursing schools simply cannot accept all qualified applicants. In 2024 alone, more than 80,000 applications were turned away, including over 65,000 BSN applicants. For those who were turned away from BSN programs, it wasn’t due to students’ capabilities, but because schools lack the capacity to teach them. We simply don’t have enough faculty, enough preceptors, enough clinical placements, or enough physical space.

Second, we’re seeing declines over time in two critical areas: RN to BSN enrollment and PhD enrollment, and both are serious. Fewer RN to BSN and doctoral students slows progress towards a more highly educated workforce, limits career mobility for nurses, and decreases future nursing faculty availability. Fewer PhD students directly affects the future supply of faculty in schools of nursing and the pipeline of nurse researchers who develop the science for nursing.

Overlay all of that with the reality that many nursing students are first generation college students who are financing their education through a patchwork of scholarships, loans, and paid work, and you begin to see who is at most risk of stepping off the path before graduation.

In 2024, more than 80,000 fully qualified applicants were turned away from nursing programs—not because of their grades, but because there weren’t enough teachers to take them. What’s driving the nursing faculty shortage, and what does it mean for students who want to get in?

At its core, the faculty shortage reflects the same pressures other nurses face in their professional lives: time, money, stress, and competing life responsibilities.

When schools can’t admit qualified students, it doesn’t just affect the individuals turned away. It weakens the entire nursing pipeline and ultimately impacts patient care and community health. A functional healthcare system depends on having enough nurses throughout the care continuum, and that starts with educational capacity.

Students who aim to start their nursing education but can’t find a seat often face difficult choices, such as delaying their education for a year or more, or setting aside their dreams of becoming a nurse entirely and choosing another field. None of those options serve students or our healthcare system.

A nurse with an advanced degree can earn 20 to 30 percent more staying at the bedside than moving into a classroom. What does it take to choose teaching—and how can scholarships help make that choice more realistic?

Debt does play a factor. Nursing students often graduate with significant loan balances and once they finish school, they’re immediately facing repayment on top of the costs of licensure, certification, and ongoing educational expenses. When I graduated with all my schooling, 20 years ago now, I had over $100,000 in education debt, and despite how much I enjoyed teaching, I could not afford to be a full-time faculty member. So, I have taught part time for the last two decades while employed in my leadership roles.  When teaching pays at least 20 to 30% less than clinical positions, and new graduate nurses make more than the seasoned faculty who instructed them in school, choosing academia can feel financially unrealistic even for nurses who are passionate about education. Reducing the cost of education up front through scholarships is one of the more effective ways to make faculty careers viable.

This concern is especially urgent right now in light of the final Department of Education rule that limits how much nurses are able to borrow for graduate education. We now risk dissuading nurses from pursuing advanced degrees altogether. Further shrinking the faculty workforce that we desperately need will trickle down so that even fewer spots are available for aspiring nurses going into nursing school. This will create shortages of nurses in all areas that will take us decades to fix.

Most nursing students who make it to graduation and sit for the NCLEX licensing exam do pass. But some programs lose 20 to 50 percent of students before they ever get there. How much of that comes down to money?

Finance is a major factor. Nursing programs are highly structured and sequential. If a student doesn’t pass one course or can’t enroll in one course, they can’t always continue with their cohort and may lose an entire year and incur a full additional year of living and educational expenses.

Many students aren’t dropping out because they lack ability. They’re pushed out by timing, program structures, and not having enough money at exactly the right time. Missing a single registration deadline because of financial shortfalls can derail an entire career trajectory.

When a nursing student drops out because of a financial emergency and loses their place in their cohort, what does that look like for them personally? What do they lose, and how hard is it to get back on track?

The consequences go far beyond money. Students often experience further self-doubt, shame, and stress. For international students, the stakes can be even higher. Failing or falling out of enrollment can mean falling out of legal status.

Once a student loses momentum—for whatever reason—getting back on track is incredibly difficult, both emotionally and financially. And that’s why preventing these disruptions really matters so much.

Scholarships can help students get in the door—but what about students who are already enrolled and hit a financial wall mid-program? How do emergency retention grants work, and why does that kind of support matter?

Emergency retention grants are critical because they recognize nursing students as whole people, not just tuition payers. When a housing, transportation, medical, or family crisis hits, tuition may not be the immediate priority. Without support such a crisis can end toa student’s education altogether.

Supporting students only through tuition waivers, reductions, or scholarships without accounting for real life emergencies puts students, institutions, and the nursing pipeline at risk. Emergency aid protects both individual students and  the broader investment that’s already been made in their education.

In addition to emergency grants for students in crisis, how can scholarships for currently enrolled nursing students make a difference in whether they finish?

They provide stability. Scholarships and emergency grants enable students to remain focused, healthy and engaged rather than constantly operating in crisis. Nursing school is already stressful, so we don’t need to amp up students’ stress. These grants not only allow for continuity that helps students finish but also helps ensure they enter the profession prepared to thrive.

If someone reading this wants to help—whether they’re a business, or a foundation, or an individual donor—what is the most meaningful thing they can do for nursing students right now?

Support organizations that directly investing in nursing students.

• Donate to Scholarship America: https://scholarshipamerica.org/donate/
• Make an unrestricted gift to the American Nurses Foundation, which provides more than $100,000 annually in academic nursing scholarships and continues to expand its reach:
  https://www.nursingworld.org/foundation/programs/leadership-in-nursing/academic-scholarships/

These investments strengthen the nursing workforce—and by extension, the health of our communities.

Dr. Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, serves as the 38th President of the American Nurses Association (ANA), the nation’s largest professional nursing organization, representing 5.5 million registered nurses. In 2026, TIME named Dr. Mensik Kennedy to the TIME100 Health list in the Titan category for her global influence on the profession. In 2025 and for the third consecutive year, she was named by Modern Healthcare as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare. She is an accomplished author whose books include Lead, Drive, and Thrive in the System and The Nurse Manager’s Guide to Innovative Staffing. She earned a PhD from the University of Arizona College of Nursing and an MBA from the Eller College of Management.

Abigail Seldin is Chief Growth Officer at Scholarship America, the leading administrator of private scholarships in the United States, where she leads revenue, partnerships, external affairs, and go-to-market execution. Last year, Scholarship America delivered 338M+ to students through 1,350+ unique programs for half of today’s Fortune 500, in addition to federal agencies, local governments, small businesses, sports teams, community foundations, and individual philanthropists.

A Rhodes Scholar who studied at Oxford and a Henry Luce Scholar, Seldin co-founded and served as CEO of two organizations from inception through acquisition—College Abacus, an edtech company acquired by ECMC Group in 2014, and the Civic Mapping Initiative, a nonprofit acquired by the National League of Cities in 2023. Appointed by Governor Ayotte in 2025, she serves as the public member on the New Hampshire Board of Nursing.

This interview is published in celebration of National Nurses Week 2026, May 6–12. Thank you to every nurse for the care you provide every day.