Plymouth State University nursing students given special gifts for their next chapter in nursing

“I’m a little nervous but you know also very excited to get to help people and to get to know the clinical environment and stuff like that,” said Sujan Bhujel, a junior-year nursing student.

According to industry experts, nurses are in high demand in health care, and because of that, wages are rising.

“The fact that it was such a lucrative field wasn’t in my mind when I went into it, so that was a big bonus, so that excites me. Also, I love how there are so many avenues that I can pursue,” said Luke Cloutier, a junior-year nursing student.

Many seniors in the program who showed up to support their peers are already working part-time in hospitals. Shannon Egan is a tech at Mass General.

“There is so much change and so much adaption that happens that if I start somewhere now, I could end up on a completely different floor somewhere else in a couple of years,” said Egan.

Plymouth State is looking to double the size of its nursing program over the next couple of years. Program Director Donna Driscoll has been a nurse for 27 years.

“To see the young people coming up and they are so excited and I think it invigorates the faculty,” said Driscoll.

A total of 34 students received their stethoscopes on Monday. They will have it both for their time at Plymouth State and out in the field, likely in a specialty of their choosing.

For perspective, this is how many nurses Dartmouth Health is looking for across its system: they need to fill 350 RN openings, 30 LPN openings and 130 LNA openings.

They also aim to hire 350 new graduate nurses in 2024 across the entire health system.