{"id":777577,"date":"2026-07-22T09:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/777577\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:26:14","slug":"louisiana-ranks-among-the-worst-states-for-nurses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/777577\/","title":{"rendered":"Louisiana ranks among the worst states for nurses"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) – A new WalletHub study<\/a> ranks Louisiana 45th in the nation for nurses, citing burnout and workplace conditions. However, one Central Louisiana nurse with more than four decades on the job said the profession is still worth choosing.<\/p>\n

Louisiana is already facing a nursing shortage. State leaders project a need for roughly 6,000 more registered nurses by 2030<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reflection on four decades of change<\/p>\n

Carolyn Akins has worked as a nurse for 42 years at CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Hospital. She never set out to enter the profession; however, one college class changed her path.<\/p>\n

\"CarolynCarolyn Akins(Courtesy of Carolyn Akins)<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the engagement with the patients, with families, with other disciplines. I love seeing people enter into a facility in one condition and us help promote those healthy outcomes, and them leave even better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Over her career, Akins has watched healthcare shift from paper charts to electronic records, but one thing has not changed.<\/p>\n

\"CarolynCarolyn Akins(Courtesy of Carolyn Akins)<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the day, there was more of a human face-to-face connection. Now, we have advanced so much because of technology. But one thing that cannot change and one thing that has to remain constant is that human connection, that feel, that touch, that look,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n

Nursing continues to show its resilience<\/p>\n

Akins said she has worked through some of healthcare\u2019s most difficult periods, including the AIDS and HIV crisis of the 1980s and 1990s and the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

(KALB)<\/p>\n

\u201cWith each crisis, nursing continues to show its resilience. It continues to show our passion for who we are, for what we do, every day, every patient, every time,\u201d Akins said.<\/p>\n

Looking toward 2030<\/p>\n

Akins now serves as Cabrini\u2019s manager of patient experience. She said hospitals are preparing for what comes next, and pointed to Cabrini\u2019s participation in the CHRISTUS Health Reach 2030 initiative<\/a>, aimed at expanding healthcare access across Central Louisiana, as evidence of that commitment.<\/p>\n

\"CarolynCarolyn Akins(KALB)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are on the cutting edge of advancing not just nursing, but healthcare in Central Louisiana. We deal in what\u2019s happening now in the present, but we\u2019re also looking towards the future,\u201d Akins said.<\/p>\n

Despite Louisiana\u2019s low national ranking, Akins said she is confident the next generation of nurses will be ready to meet the state\u2019s growing demand.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to report a typo. Please provide the title of the article in your email.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KALB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) – A new WalletHub study ranks Louisiana 45th in the nation for nurses, citing burnout…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[40208,331455,331452,331454,331453,4000,97,252,253,12992,9447,331456,331457,6098,331449,331448,48182,5569,331451,10643,102886,13687,331450],"class_list":["post-777577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-aids","tag-cabrini","tag-carolyn-akins","tag-christus-health-reach-2030-initiative","tag-christus-st-frances-cabrini-hospital","tag-covid-19","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-hiv","tag-hospitals","tag-jay-mccully","tag-kalb-com","tag-louisiana","tag-louisiana-nurses","tag-louisiana-worst","tag-medical-care","tag-nursing","tag-nursing-school","tag-pandemic","tag-registered-nurses","tag-wallethub","tag-worst-state-for-nurses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}