Registered nurses are in exceptionally high demand in Iowa, and the University of Northern Iowa’s new nursing programs will soon fill some of the need. Nancy Kertz, U-N-I’s chief academic nursing administrator, says the first graduates from the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program will graduate in the spring of 2027, with about 140 students now in the program, and that number is projected to rise to about 200 by this fall. Kertz says there are 12-hundred openings for nurses statewide. In a few months, U-N-I is launching what it’s calling an accelerated B-S-N program. It’s an aggressive 12-month program, August to August, and Kertz says students who enroll in it can expect to pay about half the price of similar programs provided by regional competitors.
