In recent years, the healthcare industry has faced unprecedented challenges. Among the most pressing is the growing shortage of nurses, especially in the home health sector. As more Americans age, the demand for home health services has surged, creating a gap between patient needs and available nurses. The question on everyone’s mind is: how can we solve this? Increasingly, higher education institutions are stepping up to address this crisis with innovative solutions, preparing the next generation of nurses for this vital field.

The Home Health Crisis

Traditionally, home health agencies have thrived on referrals from hospitals and discharge planners, as patients prefer recovering at home over long stays in skilled nursing facilities. A 2021 article from 1800HOMECARE.com highlights the growing demand for home health services, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when home care proved to be a safe alternative to institutional care. As a result, referrals to home health agencies have skyrocketed, but so have the challenges. In June 2021, the acceptance rate for home health referrals dropped to just 36%, down from 51% a year earlier. Why? The nationwide nursing shortage has severely limited agencies’ ability to take on new patients.

The shortage has reached critical levels, with home health agencies now turning down referrals and scrambling to hire qualified nurses. According to CarePort, a healthcare coordination network, post-acute care referrals to home health increased by 5% to 10% in early 2021. However, despite this increase in demand, home health agencies struggle to expand their nursing staff due to salary disparities and stringent regulations. Due to unlevel Medicare reimbursement patterns, nurses in home health earn 19% less than their counterparts in outpatient care, further exacerbating the issue.

Higher Education to the Rescue

Home health agencies struggle to achieve short-term solutions such as offering bonuses and raising salaries to help retain nurses, despite receiving no real-dollar reimbursement improvements from Medicare. Concurrently, the long-term solution lies in expanding nursing education. Schools across the country are racing to meet the demand by developing new programs and revising traditional approaches. Innovative strategies in nursing education are emerging to attract students and graduate them into the workforce faster than ever before.

Many nursing schools are now offering rolling admissions, allowing students to enroll throughout the year. Additionally, dual degree programs are becoming increasingly popular. These programs enable students to simultaneously pursue an Associate and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), cutting down both time and tuition costs. For example, Dallas College in Texas added a BSN program to its nursing curriculum, and the University of North Carolina, Charlotte will introduce an accelerated BSN in 2025.

Direct-entry MSN programs, like those at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Vermont, allow students with non-nursing undergraduate degrees to enter the field more quickly, ensuring that more qualified nurses enter the workforce to meet the growing demand.

St. Andrews University: A Case Study in Success

Smaller universities are also rising to the occasion. The Bachelor of Science Nursing (BSN) program at St. Andrews University recently achieved full approval from the North Carolina Board of Nursing (NCBON). This approval, valid for five years, signals that St. Andrews is offering a high-quality education that meets regulatory standards. Dr. Dorothy Miller, the Health Sciences Program Chair at St. Andrews, noted that the program aims to grow its enrollment and help fill the nursing gaps, particularly in rural areas like Scotland County. As Miller expressed, many nursing schools have waiting lists, but St. Andrews, being relatively new, allows qualified students to start immediately.

Addressing the Faculty Shortage

Even with these new educational pathways, there remains a significant bottleneck: a shortage of qualified faculty. Nursing schools turned away over 65,000 qualified applicants in 2023 alone due to insufficient clinical sites, teaching faculty, and classroom space. States like Nevada, South Carolina, and Arkansas are actively addressing this by allocating funds to expand nursing programs and increase the number of nurse educators. On the federal level, the bipartisan Nurse Faculty Shortage Reduction Act, introduced in 2024, aims to narrow the pay gap between nurse educators and practicing nurses, ensuring more faculty stay in teaching roles.

A Call to Action

The home health nursing shortage is a multifaceted problem that requires collaboration between healthcare providers, policymakers, and educational institutions. Higher education’s response to this crisis is a beacon of hope. By increasing access to nursing programs, expanding faculty, and accelerating graduation timelines, schools are stepping up to meet the challenge head-on. With these efforts in place, we can expect to see more nurses entering the field, ensuring that home health agencies can continue providing critical care to America’s seniors.

The healthcare industry still has a long way to go, but one thing is certain: higher education is rising to the challenge.