Imagine nearly every seat in Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center − over 20,000 seats − are empty. That’s the scale of Pennsylvania’s projected shortfall of registered nurses^[1] by 2026, according to the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.

Hospitals in the state report an average 14% vacancy rate for registered nurses^[2]. In rural areas it is much higher.

This shortage, of course, is not just in...