Changes In The Pipeline Of New NPs And RNs: Implications For Health Care Delivery And Educational Capacity

The number of new nurse practitioners (NPs) graduating each year continues to rise rapidly and will likely exceed the annual number of new physicians completing training in the next few years. This has significant implications for the future delivery system as well as for the number of registered nurses (RNs) and physicians the nation will need to educate in the future. The number of new nurses entering the profession with a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) has continued to rise steadily, and in 2017 for the first time more new nurses entered the profession with a BSN than an associate’s degree in nursing (ADN). However, the overall inflow of new RNs may not be sufficient to meet future demand.