Russell Sage College is receiving funding to support nursing education in the Capital Region.
$275,000 from the Innovation Partnership, a collaboration between Albany County and MVP Health Care, will support the private college’s I Can Achieve a Nursing Degree, or ICAN, program. It’s meant to help diversify healthcare by helping people from underrepresented and marginalized communities enter the nursing field.
Speaking Monday at the Albany Leadership Charter School for Girls, whose nursing students participate in the ICAN program, College President Matthew Shaftel says the money will help address a projected shortage of nearly 40,000 registered nurses by 2030.
“Only 7.8% of RNs identify as BIPOC and 10.2% as Hispanic. This disparity has huge and long-lasting effects on all of our communities,” Shaftel said.
The money will support students at ALCS and Green Tech Charter School.
The National Council of State Boards of Nursing reports about 100,000 nurses had left the field by 2023, with another 600,000 saying they planned to leave by 2027 due to stress, burnout, and retirement. Democratic Albany County Executive Dan McCoy says it means shortages have become critical, including at local healthcare facilities.
“It's a lot of pressure when you're taking care of someone's loved one, when you're seeing people when they're sick at their most vulnerable time to get them through that and to give have a skill set of not just being a nurse, but actually kind of like being a psychiatrist too, and being there for the family,” McCoy said.
Albany Leadership Board President Sojourner Brice says the program fits well with the school’s efforts to address systemic inequalities in education.
“In a day and age where our students in general are constantly being bombarded with images and messages, and especially for those of us who are BIPOC, that we're not enough, we're too tall, we're too proud, we're too strident, we're too whatever, Green Tech and Albany Leadership Academy are places where they are centered,” Brice said.
Muna Abdullah is a senior in the nursing program at Albany Leadership. She says it was a new experience for her.
“I really liked being around babies and all of that. So I would like to be like a nurse for babies,” Abdullah said.
Fellow senior nursing student Deliliah Irby says nursing wasn’t her original plan.
“I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was younger,” Irby said.
But with a number of nurses in the family, they suggested she look into the field, and now she has one specialty in mind.
“Forensic nurses help domestic violence, sexual assault, people who have been assaulted by their relationship [partners],” Irby said.
She says she wants to attend Russell Sage.
“I went down to their simulation lab, and I really liked it. I think it’s going to help a lot,” Irby said.
Halima Aldhala, a fellow senior nursing student, says she most appreciates the mentorship aspect of the program.
“She would try to take time out of her day to just come and talk to me and have a conversation and just learn… I think that was really helpful,” Aldhala said.
Russell Sage will host an ICAN summit on its Albany campus October 25th and 26th.
