Idaho's nursing shortage isn't going away anytime soon. A new program to help

Rose Evans, The Idaho Statesman on Apr 8, 2025

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BOISE, Idaho — In just 16 months, a new nursing program in Meridian will usher its first class of nurses into the health care workforce. In Idaho, that workforce is waiting with open arms — and a deficit of hundreds of workers.

Grand Canyon University, a private Christian university based in Phoenix, celebrated the onset of its accelerated nursing program on Tuesday. The program’s classrooms and lab spaces are located in an office building just south of Interstate 84 next to Top Golf in Meridian.

The program offers students a bachelor’s degree in nursing through a 16-month track that continues year-round through the summer. It also offers online prerequisite courses to help initiate students with no or few college credits or who have non-nursing degrees into the program.

Grand Canyon University believes this focus on getting students into the program and then getting qualified nurses into the workforce will help with labor shortages locally and nationally.

Program to ‘ease Idaho’s nursing shortage’

In a news release announcing the program’s grand opening, Grand Canyon University called the accelerated track “a new program to help students find their calling, ease Idaho’s nursing shortage.”

Idaho is short 468 registered nurses to meet “baseline needs” in the state, according to a 2024 Idaho Nursing Workforce Report conducted by the Idaho Center for Nursing, a nursing research and philanthropy organization. If you exclude retirement-aged licensed nurses, that deficit widens to 1,867 nurses, the report says.

Though the report says Idaho gained registered nurses since 2022, it hasn’t been enough to keep up with need or the state’s continued population growth.

And projections by the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, suggest that Idaho will have a 17% shortage of registered nurses by 2037, demonstrating the gap between the supply of these workers and the demand for them.

Nationally, the health administration counts a deficit of about 295,800 nurses, with increased demand brought on in part by an aging population of Baby Boomers and an aging workforce of nurses retiring or getting close.

University partners with Saint Alphonsus

Grand Canyon University is one of several education organizations in the Treasure Valley that have ramped up health care education to address this deficit.

GCU is partnering with Saint Alphonsus Health System to give students clinical experience. Students are on the GCU campus in Meridian roughly three days a week and in the hospital for the fourth day.

On-campus learning includes a combination of nursing skills labs, where students practice specific techniques such as inserting an intravenous line (IV); and immersive simulations, with mannequin-like patients who can breathe, speak, cry and even give birth.

In the skills lab, students can be found in their signature purple scrubs, introducing themselves to the mannequins and asking them about their pain, said Brenda Solari, the Meridian site director, on a tour of the campus.

Solari said instruction remains “patient focused,” even when students are practicing a specific technical skill.

A windowed examination room, where students prepare to take their licensure exam, is the only place on campus where students are allowed to wear their “regular” clothes, Solari said. At the conclusion of their time with GCU, students would ideally obtain both a bachelor’s of science in nursing and a registered-nurse license through the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.

GCU is also holds a faith-based mission with a commitment to Christ-centered values, according to its website.

The Meridian campus is one of nine accelerated nursing program sites that GCU has established, with others in Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, and Utah, according to a university news release. Another site will open in Florida this summer.

Health care education a priority in Treasure Valley

Other nursing programs in the Treasure Valley include the College of Western Idaho’s registered nursing program and Idaho State University’s accelerated nursing track. Both schools have plans to expand.

The College of Western Idaho is planning a $90 million expansion of its northeast Nampa campus, which would include a new Health and Science Building, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.

And in Meridian, Idaho State University’s Health Science campus plans to add 23 acres. That plan is still in early stages, but the expansion may include on-campus student housing, research opportunities, or additional health clinics, the campus’s executive director, Dr. Gabe Bargen, previously told the Statesman.

Meridian Mayor Robert Simison, who attended the Grand Canyon University grand opening, has made health care a priority for the city in recent years. In State of the City addresses in 2023 and 2024, Simison emphasized his desire to make Meridian “the health care epicenter of Idaho.”

And that means more nurses.

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