Virginia’s Community Colleges produce nearly half of the commonwealth’s new nurses every year.  And from what Pamela Gould wrote in this morning’s Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star that isn’t changing anytime soon:

Germanna [Community College]’s program for practical and registered nurses is enrolled to the max and interest is skyrocketing.

More than 1,000 people are in the “pre-nursing pipeline” this year, taking their prerequisite courses with hopes of getting into the program, said Jane Ingalls, dean of nursing and health technologies.

That’s a 68 percent increase in four years, a 25 percent increase in the past year.

But there’s an inherent challenge with that extreme growth level:  finding the space and instructors to train that many people:

Greta Haggerty has a dozen nursing students in her wellness program but because of space constraints, can only allow half of them in the consultation area at a time.

Even then, students are squeezed into a room so small they can meet with just a handful of patients per day.

“Space is definitely an issue,” said Haggerty, a clinical instructor in Germanna Community College’s nursing program.

The reality is that not every one of those students will become nurses.  But those who do not become nurses can go on to have a wonderful and rewarding career in the field of health sciences.

And they can find that career by exploring the Career Clusters within The Virginia Education Wizard – one of the tool’s coolest features.

After you take the assessment tests and find the career field that is interesting to you, The Wizard will give you related job fields that require similar skills and interests and then allow you to explore them.

After all, while the nursing field is in great demand now, and will be for the next five years, it is not the only one.