The nursing shortage has led to a greater reliance on travel nurses that come with big price tags. Thats causing some hospitals to rethink their nursing staff retention efforts.

Amid a nursing shortage, nursing homes are relying on staffing agencies for help — but they're charging more for their services. Agencies say it's simply supply and demand. Nursing homes say they're being gouged. And the nurses themselves just want to make more money.

The state Senate voted 48-0 on Thursday in favor of allowing nursing schools to increase enrollment and hire more part-time instructors if they have a high percentage of graduates passing the national nursing licensing exam. The House approved a similar version of the bill last month.

Lawmakers aim to address nursing shortages. Indiana surpasses 21,000 dead. And statewide COVID-19 cases continue to drop.

Health care providers say Indiana has a nursing shortage crisis, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Legislation that cleared a Senate committee Wednesday seeks to help solve that issue.

Starting this fall, nursing students at Ivy Tech can enroll in the Beacon Scholars program, which offers tuition assistance, living stipends and future employment at Beacon facilities.

A proposed loosening of Indiana’s regulations on nursing education programs is advancing in the Legislature, with supporters saying the step is needed to help address a statewide nursing shortage.

Ivy Tech has a goal to admit 600 more nursing students each year by 2025.

Indiana National Guard members are assisting three hospitals as increased COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths stretch the capacity of overworked and understaffed hospitals even thinner.

In Indiana some healthcare observers warn statewide capacity data doesn’t reflect the true state of hospitals that are facing a nursing shortage.