Governor Beshear has signed an executive order declaring Kentucky’s nursing shortage an emergency, while reporting an additional 2,736 cases of COVID-19 Thursday.
He says the state is operating 12-to-20 percent short of needed nursing volume and the state is projected to need more than 16,000 additional nurses by 2024—he says it was a problem before the pandemic, and now it has only gotten worse.
The order will allow Kentucky nursing schools to enroll more students. It will also require schools to report vacant student seats to the Board of Nursing every month.
Governor Beshear says his next proposed budget will include a loan forgiveness or some type of scholarship program for nurses that agree to stay in Kentucky for a certain amount of time.
While Christian and Trigg Counties are now labelled as ‘red’ on the COVID-19 state incidence rate map and Todd County is ‘yellow’, the positivity rate in the state decreased down to 8.99 percent. There were 61 newly reported deaths, putting the death toll in the Commonwealth at 11,479.