WASHINGTON CITY, Utah — Imagine you're a 19-year-old nursing student, and you look across the way and find your classmate is your 48-year-old dad. It's all part of how a father and daughter in Washington City are doing something to help battle the nursing shortage felt across Utah.
"It is nice because if I have questions, I can just ask him," said Emeri Clarke. "Especially during the summer, we work together every day. And so we would work together all day on the hospice company, and then we would come home at night and do our homework."
Jason and Emeri Clarke are both nearing completion of their online nursing program at Nightingale College. Jason, along with his wife, Marcy, is also trying to start a hospice business. Emery is the couple's third-oldest child and recently moved to Provo, where she’s started as a nursing assistant at a hospital.
Jason says the family motto is dream big, work hard. So when Emeri wanted to go into nursing school…
"I want to try to be an example for them to work hard," he said. "You know, you've got to do hard things in life. And you want a personal and professional to grow. So that was the biggest thing is, yeah, midlife crisis of 48, I guess you could say."
The ongoing nursing shortage is another crisis.
Utah has the nation's lowest nurse-to-population ratio, attributed to fewer nursing students, according to the National Council on State Boards of Nursing. The council attributes that to fewer students in nursing schools.
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"We have about 3,000 registered nurse open positions for registered nurses in the state," explained Jonathan Tanner, Chief Growth Officer at Nightingale College. "We're approaching a time, I think, not just in Utah, but throughout the country, where there's a large number of nurses that are about to enter retirement age. And so we have an ageing population in the nursing workforce, and we're not producing the right supply of nurses."
Nightingale College even cut tuition by 31% for Utah residents to attract students. Tanner said the average age of its students is 32 years old, and a parent and child both being enrolled is not uncommon.
But Emeri doesn't believe the nurse problem is the fault of her dad’s generation.
"I've been blessed to have parents that have taught me anything's possible," she said. "You just have to work hard, which I think my generation struggles with. People don't want to work hard anymore. You have to grind to make it work."
