RELEASE: Gottheimer Announces Federal Investment Clawed Back to Combat Massive NJ Nursing Shortage

Above: Gottheimer announcing new federal investment clawed back for Holy Name’s Sister Claire Tynan School of Nursing.

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ — Today, June 1, 2023, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer announced that, by working closely with local leaders and the health care community, $3.8 million in new federal investment is being clawed back from Washington to Holy Name’s Sister Claire Tynan School of Nursing to train dozens more nurses every year. This new investment will help Holy Name grow their future nursing school class size to meet historic applicant levels.

Right now, there is a massive nursing shortage in New Jersey and nationwide. The COVID-19 pandemic left behind a record level of burnout.

The $3.8 million federal investment clawed back for Holy Name’s Sister Claire Tynan School of Nursing will: 

• Invest in more faculty, simulation training for students, and additional supplies and equipment. 
• Help keep the cost of an education more affordable for students. 
• Help Holy Name, New Jersey, and the nation increase access to care for patients and deliver the highest standard of health care. 
• Help create a pipeline for medical professionals working in New Jersey and keep more doctors and nurses in the state.

New Jersey and the country are facing a nursing shortage:

• Nationwide, about 100,000 registered nurses left the workplace because of the stresses of the pandemic. And another 800,000 said they intend to leave by 2027.
• Studies predict that in the next two years, there will be a shortage of up to 450,000 bedside nurses in the U.S.
• New Jersey ranks among the top ten states with the most unfilled registered nurse positions — more than 13,000. 
• New Jersey predicts a shortage of 11,400 nurses by 2030 — the third highest in the nation.
• The nursing profession is experiencing shortages because of pandemic burnout, an aging population — which means there are more people to care for — as well as an aging workforce and a lack of potential educators.

“I want to thank Holy Name for the remarkable work they do in Englewood Cliffs at the Sister Claire Tynan School of Nursing, helping to train all of these heroes. The COVID pandemic left behind a record level of burnout and our nation is facing a record nursing shortage, including right here in New Jersey. This is pure pandemic burnout — and the nursing shortage is a five-alarm fire for health care in our state and nation,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “Working closely with local leaders and the health care community, we fought for, and have officially clawed back from Washington to Holy Name, $3.8 million to help the Sister Claire Tynan School of Nursing train more nurses — dozens more every year. This investment will go toward more faculty, simulation training for students, additional supplies and equipment, and it will also help keep the cost of an education more affordable. This will help Holy Name grow their future nursing school class size to meet historic applicant levels. We’re helping create a pipeline for medical professionals working in Jersey — to keep doctors and nurses in the state.” 

“It’s up to us to provide the best education, help build the pipeline of clinicians, and provide the top-notch care all patients deserve. The funding secured by Congressman Gottheimer in the TRAIN Act is critical going forward as we are positioned to train more nurses in the future,” said President and CEO of Holy Name Medical Center Michael Maron.

The Sister Claire Tynan School of Nursing is located in Englewood Cliffs, NJ and has been training and educating nursing professionals for nearly 100 years.

Gottheimer was joined today at the Sister Claire Tynan School of Nursing by President and CEO of Holy Name Medical Center Michael Maron, Vice President of Nursing at Holy Name Medical Center Cedar Wang, and nurses and health care workers. 

Video of the announcement can be found here. 

Below: Congressman Gottheimer at Holy Name’s Sister Claire Tynan School of Nursing with nurses and hospital officials.

Gottheimer’s remarks as prepared for delivery:  

Good morning! Before I begin, I’d like to thank all the doctors, nurses, techs, and hospital staff here at Holy Name for your incredible work, especially over these particularly trying last few years during the pandemic. You are our heroes, and, on behalf of everyone in the Fifth District, thank you for keeping our community safe and healthy, and for the lifesaving work you do each and every day.

I also want to thank Holy Name for the remarkable work they do here in Englewood Cliffs at the Sister Claire Tynan School of Nursing, helping to train all of these heroes. They get prepared here for everything from the Emergency Department to the trauma stations to the pediatricians’ office. I’m so grateful. 

This is especially important right now when we need well-trained nurses more than ever. The COVID pandemic left behind a record level of burnout and our nation is facing a record nursing shortage, including right here in New Jersey. Nationwide, about 100,000 registered nurses left the workplace because of the stresses of the pandemic. And another 800,000 said they intend to leave by 2027.

In fact, New Jersey ranks among the top ten states with the most unfilled registered nurse positions — more than 13,000. And this issue is not expected to resolve itself soon. 

The State predicts a shortage of 11,400 nurses by 2030 — the third highest in the nation.

The nursing profession is also experiencing shortages because of an aging population — which means there are more people to care for — as well as an aging workforce and a lack of potential educators.

One study predicts that in the next two years, there will be a shortage of up to 450,000 bedside nurses in the U.S.

This is pure pandemic burnout – and the nursing shortage is a five-alarm fire for health care in our state and nation. And, we can’t just sit back and hope this will get better on its own. We need to take action. That’s why we’re here today. 

This is the good news: Working closely with local leaders and the health care community, we fought for, and have officially clawed back from Washington to Holy Name, a total of more than $3.8 million to help the Sister Claire Tynan School of Nursing train more nurses — dozens more every year. That’s a huge deal. 

This investment will go toward more faculty, simulation training for students, and additional supplies and equipment. And it will also help keep the cost of an education more affordable for students. 

The Sister Claire Tynan School of Nursing has been training and educating nursing professionals for nearly 100 years. We’re so proud to have them in New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District. 

And here’s more great news: the nursing school here has had its highest enrollment in almost 100 years — 15 percent higher this year than last year. 

This year, they graduated a class of 68 nurses. 

This new investment will help Holy Name grow their future nursing school class size to meet historic applicant levels, and as I said, it could help them train dozens more nurses a year. 

This means that Holy Name, our state, and our nation will be able to increase access to care for patients and continue to help the hospital deliver the highest standard of health care to our community. 

This new investment is key to creating a pipeline for medical professionals working in Jersey and keeping doctors and nurses in the state.

We need to work to ensure we have enough nurses to serve our great community. We simply can’t allow this shortage to get worse. 

We can’t have emergency rooms and hospitals turning away people looking for help or waiting hours for care simply because there aren’t enough healthcare professionals.

By working with Holy Name, we identified that one of the best ways to address our healthcare worker shortage was to expand upon educational opportunities to train new nurses here in New Jersey. 

I am very proud to have worked with Mike, Cedar, and the team at Holy Name to help make this project possible. 

I will continue to work with local leaders, listen to healthcare workers, and fight to claw our federal tax dollars back to North Jersey to help us right here. 

Since I was elected, I’ve made it a priority to fight to claw back these dollars for North Jersey families. I’ve been working for years with our mayors, councils, counties, first responders, colleges, nonprofits, and religious institutions to help claw more of our federal tax dollars back from Washington to New Jersey. As of last year, we are now up 357 percent in what we’ve clawed back from Washington and the Moocher States since I took office.

On top of that, overall, we brought back more than $2 billion in relief to Bergen County, the county government, and every single Bergen County town and borough during the pandemic, and more than $3 billion to the entire Fifth District to tackle COVID — to help with first responders, vaccines, health care facilities, for PPP relief for small businesses, and other critical relief.  

And to make sure we’re supporting our hospitals and health care workers, last week, I introduced new bipartisan legislation — the Medical and Health Stockpile Accountability Act — to strengthen the Strategic National Stockpile and ensure the U.S. is better prepared for future crises and pandemics. This legislation will combat equipment shortages and provide near real-time tracking of medical and health supply inventories in New Jersey and nationwide — for supplies that frontline workers desperately need. I am also proud to support bipartisan legislation to expand the number of Medicare-supported medical residency positions — including right here at Holy Name. 

The bottom line: the pandemic has taught all of us, including our doctors and hospitals, that none of us can afford just to think in the short term. We must better prepare ourselves for the future.  

This federal investment we’re announcing today will help Holy Name do just that. 

I know that with incredible leaders like Mike Maron and Cedar Wang, and the hardworking Holy Name team fighting to help our communities stay healthy and safe, in the greatest country in the world, our best days will always be ahead of us. 

May God bless you and may God bless these United States of America.

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