What we can do to address New Hampshire's nursing shortage

Lisa Kennedy Sheldon

Guest Columnist, Seacoast Online

May 16, 2026, 5:01 a.m. ET

Walk through any hospital corridor in New Hampshire and you'll hear the same thing from administrators, nurses and patients: there simply aren't enough nurses. As an experienced nurse leader and former faculty, I see this crisis affecting the health of Granite Staters and can no longer look away.

New Hampshire currently faces a shortfall of approximately 2,000 nurses leaving our hospitals to rely on expensive, out-of-state contract or “travel” nurses. A travel RN costs New Hampshire hospitals roughly 40–70% more per hour than a staff RN in base pay alone. These numbers aren't just bureaucratic data points - they represent real patients waiting longer for care, real increases in the cost of healthcare and copays, real nurses burning out under crushing workloads, and real communities at risk when they are sick.

Our rural geography and reliance on small, regional healthcare providers compound the problem and make our citizens more vulnerable. Many communities have only one hospital or primary care clinic within reasonable distance. Staffing shortages in areas such as maternity care and mental health have already strained the system. In fact, nine hospitals - mostly in rural areas - have closed labor and delivery services since 2000. This doubles the commute time for women in rural areas, putting pregnant women and their babies at risk.

Compounding the problem is a national pipeline crisis - we don’t have enough nursing faculty to train new nurses. Between 2024 and 2025, more than 65,000 qualified candidates were turned away from nursing programs nationwide due to faculty shortages, fewer clinical training sites, and budget constraints. New Hampshire is no exception to this bottleneck. Students want to become nurses; the system lacks the capacity to train them. In addition, the federal loans to train nursing faculty have recently been capped by the federal government at a lower level.

What can New Hampshire do? The answer requires action on several fronts simultaneously.

1. Invest in nursing education infrastructure. Saint Anselm College's new Jean School of Nursing and Health Sciences - a $40 million, 45,000-square-foot facility - represents exactly the kind of bold commitment to expand classroom and clinical training capacity with funding from private donors, the state and federal government thanks to Senator Shaheen and Representative Pappas, and foundations. More institutions should follow this collaborative model.

2. Tackle the faculty shortage head-on. You cannot train more nurses without more nurse educators. Loan forgiveness programs specifically targeting nursing faculty would help lure experienced clinicians into the classroom. Some institutions are already experimenting with tuition-free pathways. For example, New Hampshire could partner with UNH, Plymouth State, or Rivier University to co-fund a faculty pipeline program with a service-back requirement to meet the needs of rural and underserved communities.

Experienced nurses in clinical sites could assist with teaching in return for tuition waivers for graduate education.

3. Expand financial incentives for rural service. States are increasingly experimenting with tuition-free nursing programs, last-dollar scholarships, and rural service scholarships to attract nurses where they are needed most. For example, the newly funded GO-NORTH program in New Hampshire will provide more than $130 million over the next five years to work on the development of training and higher education programs for healthcare professionals.

4. Embrace technology. Virtual nursing roles - where remote RNs handle patient education, monitoring, and triage - are freeing on-site nurses for hands-on care. AI-driven staffing platforms are helping balance workloads and prevent overtime fatigue.

5. Retain the nurses we already have. Competitive wages, flexible scheduling, mental health support, tuition reimbursement, on-site child care, and meaningful career advancement pathways are not luxuries - they are retention strategies that pay for themselves many times over in avoided turnover costs. And keep our nurses in beautiful New Hampshire!

The nursing shortage didn't develop overnight, and it won't be solved with a single policy. But New Hampshire has always prided itself on self-reliance and pragmatic problem-solving. It is time to put those values to work. The health of the Granite State - quite literally - depends on it.