August 4, 2026
There Is No Nursing Shortage. There's an Exodus, and Hospitals Built It.
A piece went around last week with a headline most hospital executives would never say out loud. Stop saying there's a nursing shortage. TIME ran it on July 30, and RegisteredNursing.org built a whole 2026 analysis around the same data the next day. Here's the number that should stop you cold. More than 280,000 people passed the NCLEX in 2025, up about 34 percent from 2016. Around 7 million nurses
Seth Merritt
August 4, 2026
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5 min read