Originally published by The Daily Tar Heel

by Sophie King Oct. 8, 2025

The N.C. Center on the Workforce for Health and N.C. Chamber Foundation released the second annual N.C. Health Talent Alliance workforce data analysis this September. The analysis, which focused on collecting data on nursing in North Carolina, determined a high level of nursing vacancies across the state.

The data describes three categories of vacancies: registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants. According to the analysis, one in eight RN, one in three LPN and one in five CNA positions remain unfilled statewide. 

Andy MacCracken, the director of the N.C. Center on the Workforce for Health, said the main idea behind the analysis is to support conversations to address staffing issues with valuable data.

MacCracken said a high number of unfilled positions can burden remaining medical staff. He also said staffing shortages may result in limited access to care in rural areas. If staffing levels become more consistent, quality care is easier to maintain, he said.

Emily McCartha, senior policy analyst with the N.C. Center on the Workforce for Health said that the analysis came about because of the community’s need for it. Quantifying the gap in nursing employment was important to better address issues, she said, and when regional communities have access to that data, staffing issues can be better addressed.

In order to reach those solutions, Vincent Ginski, the director of workforce competitiveness for the N.C. Chamber Foundation, said the data needs to drive tangible solutions.

“That allows us to target public and private investments in a way more targeted and granular way,” Ginski said.

Solutions vary across the state, often including coordinating plans to retain nurses within the region they were trained, MacCracken said. Because the analysis is only in its second year, many of these solutions are continuing to develop, he said. 

The Wilmington area, for example, has begun  coordinating efforts between community colleges and UNC-Wilmington, creating a more integrated curriculum as well as defined pathways to encourage a career track for nursing students in the area.

Solutions to these shortages are also prevalent at the collegiate level. Emily Vitale, president of the N.C. Association of Nursing Students, said the organization is starting the Scrubs and Scholars program, which she said aims to expose students who have not previously considered health professions to career paths in nursing.

The initiative will begin at Title I schools in the Greensboro area, but Vitale said she is hoping to expand it across the state.

“A lot of times when we talk about shortages, we think, ‘Oh, there’s a lack of people who want to do a certain job,’ which in the case of nursing isn’t true,” Vitale said.

She said the issue often has less to do with a lack of interest and more to do with a lack of instructional capacity. In other words, there simply aren’t enough classroom seats to accommodate student interest.

Vitale, a School of Nursing student, said she’s excited about the school’s expansion as renovations to Carrington Hall are underway and UNC’s Nursing Education program expands each year.

“We have plans to increase from between 50 to 100 percent, so that’s almost two times as many nursing students that we have right now,” said Valerie Howard, dean of the nursing school.

Howard said that as a public institution in North Carolina, the university is dedicated to meeting the state’s need for care. By preparing nursing students for the workforce, and expanding the program, Howard said that UNC can help to combat these vacancies.

UNC system schools and North Carolina community colleges have been awarded millions of dollars to expand health science programs, Ginski said, with $29 million in grants to the UNC system alone that will soon support nursing education expansion.

“There’s been a really big push in the nursing community to use our collective power as the largest healthcare profession in the US to try to lobby and advocate for more equitable policies, safe staffing and support for nurses so that they can stay in their roles,” Vitale said.