West Virginia Nursing Schools

West Virginia faces a rising nursing shortage due to aging baby boomers, a growing need in health care, and a lack of capacity in nursing schools due to faculty shortage. The nursing shortage crisis is particularly troublesome for West Virginia because of the large senior population in the state. In fact, West Virginia has the second largest percentage of seniors over 65 in the U.S. according to the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy (July 2012). By 2035, it is expected that the number of elderly in the state will grow to 25 percent of the population. Unfortunately, despite looming nursing shortages, West Virginia's nursing schools are forced to turn away or place on waitlists many qualified registered nursing applicants each year due to a shortage of Nurse Educators and clinical facilities.Educators and health planners see the growing demand for nurses not only as a need for additional personnel but also for additional education, with more nurses prepared in baccalaureate programs that emphasize leadership, patient education, case management, and care across a variety of acute care and outpatient settings. Nurse Educators, BSN prepared nurses, home health nurses, and all advanced practice specialties - clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, nurse-midwives, and nurse anesthetists — all professions that are sought after — especially in West Virginia's rural areas where there is much need of primary care for an increasing aging population with chronic diseases.

In order to meet the increasingly complex demands of today's health care environment, many healthcare agencies prefer or require a minimum of a bachelor's degree for their nursing staff, so now is the perfect time for LPN's to enroll in an online LPN to RN program, or LPN to BSN degree program, for RN's to take an online RN-BSN degree completion program, or RN to MSN bridge program, and for BSN nurses to earn a MS in Nursing degree.

Average Nursing Base Salaries:

Find Nursing Schools and Allied Health Programs For West Virginia

Browse accredited nursing schools and allied health programs that accept students from West Virginia, then request information, at no cost to you, from any or all schools offering programs that match your needs: