The Nursing Shortage Is an Admissions Problem

What if the fastest way to add 2,000 new nurses each year is to fix how we admit them into nursing programs?

The nursing shortage is no longer a looming concern – it’s a present-tense crisis. Hospitals are stretched thin, patients are waiting longer, and healthcare teams are burning out under unsustainable conditions. This is an existential threat to our healthcare system.

And yet, the pipeline meant to supply the profession – pre-licensure nursing programs – is leaking from both ends.

We Turn Away Too Many

Every year, nursing programs across the country reject tens of thousands of academically qualified applicants – not for lack of potential, but for lack of seats and an outdated admissions process that relies heavily on GPA and standardized test scores.

And We Lose Too Many

Even among those who are admitted, attrition rates hover around 20% nationally. Some programs report rates as high as 50%. That’s one in five (or more) nursing students who begin the program but never make it to graduation.

Let’s put that into perspective:
If we could lower the national attrition rate by just 1%, we’d add roughly 2,000 new nurses to the workforce annually. That’s not aspirational – that’s actionable.

The Real Problem Isn’t Just Capacity. It’s Selection.

Most nursing programs are doing the best they can with the tools they have. But when those tools focus narrowly on academic performance, they miss critical predictors of success – resilience, motivation, problem-solving, empathy. These beyond-cognitive attributes are often what determine whether a student will persevere through the demands of nursing education and practice.

Academic metrics may tell us who can get into nursing school.
They don’t tell us who should get in or will make it through.

Level Assessments Was Built to Change That

At Level Assessments, we help nursing programs take a more predictive, equitable approach to admissions. Our platform assesses both cognitive and beyond-cognitive attributes backed by decades of nursing education research.

Programs that use Level Assessments can:

• Select students most likely to thrive in nursing school and beyond
• Reduce attrition and remediation burdens
• Build more diverse, resilient, and high-performing cohorts

This Isn’t Just an Innovation. It’s a Necessity.

If you’re a nurse educator, admissions chair, or program director, this isn’t someone else’s problem to solve. It’s ours. And with the right tools, we can solve it – together.

Ready to rethink what’s possible in admissions?
Learn how Level Assessments can help.