Black male nurses filling the gaps as they walk across AU stage

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The pandemic may be over, yet hospitals and clinics are still struggling with the lack of nurses.

By 2035 Georgia is expected to have a 21 percent shortage of ed nurses. South Carolina 11 percent.

Georgia will be the second highest out of 10 other states, according to the Federal Government Study. Hope is on the horizon as new nurses walked across the stage.

We caught up with a few to ask what their mindset is going into a field that so many are leaving.

It’s a shortage impacting Augusta locally and nationally. But 165 graduating nurses are hoping to fill the gaps, and for some, it’s filling spots to represent the African American male nursing community.

Nurses are retiring and leaving. Augusta University is short 17% of all nurses. Piedmont is short at least 100, and the VA has gained more than they’ve lost in 2023.

But this shortage isn’t taking away the hope for the next generation.

“Not at all. I feel like it will actually encourage more people, especially even myself,” said Jabari Harris, a graduate.

The shortage may not be intimidating, but these four graduates, they’re going into unfamiliar territory — being a Black nurse.

“That part could be a little intimidating. I feel like a trailblazer at times because I am an underrepresented number of the population,” said Harris.

Three percent of the graduating nursing class are Black males, which is up from years past, with some years having none.

Graduate Roshane Grant said: “There’s a stereotype of only being a rapper or a ball player so I want to kind of bring light to the nursing profession. I know a lot of people ... Black guys who are in medicine, but the nursing profession is more so female-dominated. I want them to know that it could be nurses too.”

For Edwin Randall, his focus now is pouring his love for nursing into the next generation to try to fix these stereotypes and build up more Black males becoming nurses.

“If I can find that people, especially minority youth, just like myself, that have a ion to help others, I definitely want to motivate them to possibly, you know, pursue a journey in nursing,” he said.

Next year, AU is expecting to have more than six graduates from the program, which will get more Black males to become nurses.

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