New Jersey will see a 25% shortage in the number of registered nurses to adequately care for its burgeoning older population by 2036, according to an analysis this year by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.
In raw numbers, that would be a deficit of 24,450 nurses — ranking New Jersey fourth in the nation in nursing deficit.
It comes at the worst possible time for New Jersey, as an exodus of health care workers and an increasingly older population converge to strain the system.