The Need
Our nation is facing a critical shortage of nurses, a challenge that threatens the stability and quality of our healthcare system. An aging population, rising rates of chronic illness, and increased demand for care are outpacing the supply of qualified nursing professionals. Hospitals, clinics, and long-term care facilities across the country are struggling to fill essential roles, leading to increased workloads, burnout, and compromised patient outcomes. Expanding and strengthening the nursing pipeline is not just a workforce issue—it’s a public health imperative.
Our Innovative Solution
NursesMC™, a 501c3 organization, created a groundbreaking education model to address this need: a public nursing high school designed to prepare students to enter college and the healthcare workforce.
The NursesMC flagship school in Providence — Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College (RINI) — has proven the model’s ability to transform students’ lives. For the past five years, NursesMC’s flagship school has ranked #1 in the state for college credits and workforce credentials awarded to its students. Only 10% of them start at grade level, and 94% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch; yet as of 2022, the majority of RINI graduates were in the college pipeline, had graduated college, and/or were in a healthcare career.
The Future
Now, The NursesMC is focused on scaling its network of public nursing high schools to reach more communities nationwide. This innovative model not only transforms students’ lives—it creates economic mobility for families and strengthens the healthcare system by building a reliable, long-term pipeline of well-prepared nursing professionals. As the network expands, so does its potential to drive systemic change in both education and workforce development.
