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Courtney Gramm waited seven months to receive her nurse practitioner license in California. Nursing boards, meant as a safeguard, have become an obstacle, preventing qualified nurses from getting into the workforce for months when basic vetting should take only weeks.

Nurses are waiting months for licenses as hospital staffing shortages spread

Almost 1 in 10 nurses who were issued new licenses last year waited six months or more, an NPR analysis found. Nurses say patient care suffers as these delays make staffing shortages even worse.

A screenshot of Neurogrow, which tests a patient's memory and reaction time as an experimental treatment for cognitive decline.

Researchers explore an unlikely treatment for cognitive disorders: video games

Video games distract, amuse, and inspire. But new research begs the question: can they heal?

Then-Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, calls on members of the Assembly to approve her measure to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to let voters decide if the state should overturn its ban on affirmative action programs, at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, June 10, 2020.

Reparations are for descendants of Black slaves, Weber says

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber is the daughter of sharecroppers who authored legislation creating the first-in-the-nation task force in California to study and recommend reparations.

Zoe Touray (left) Eliyah Cohen (middle) and RuQuan Brown (right) are some of the student activists leading the charge for gun reform.

We asked 5 students: What inspired you to become a gun control activist?

NPR spoke with high school and college students who have been impacted by gun violence, and are now working to make sure others won't be.

A Santa Claus in Germany wears a surgical mask in December 2020. If you're planning to take the kids to see Santa this year, experts say it's safest to keep everyone's masks on.

Coronavirus FAQ: Is it OK for the kids to take a pic with Santa?

Plus: Is it safe to go to a holiday party if not everyone is vaccinated? And are people getting different side effects from the COVID booster?

A cyclist pauses outside the site of the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, N.Y. With the Tops store closed for the foreseeable future, the community around it has been left without easy access to healthy and affordable food.

The Buffalo shooting is a reminder that millions don't live near a grocery store

Grocery stores provide healthy foods, create jobs and offer a place for community connection. "We started calling them front-line and essential workers for a reason," says one food access advocate.

Reeny Pereira had been a licensed nurse in Maryland for years. But when she moved to Pennsylvania, that state wouldn't recognize her license. Pereira had to wait five months for a new Pennsylvania license.

Nurses are frustrated by months-long delays to get licensed in some states

Nurses trying to practice in Pennsylvania have some of the longest waiting times in the nation. After wading endlessly through red tape, some have given up and left, worsening the staffing shortage.

Tree planters walk into a cut block with no road access, carrying food, water and a full load of trees to be planted. Unpaid walk-ins of up to an hour are not uncommon in remote areas.

How planting trees fostered a sense of belonging and changed this filmmaker's life

Cinematographer Luc Forsyth documents the back-breaking manual labor and niche community of tree planting.

Nastia Stefanovich, a volunteer at the distribution center in Lviv for goods donated for Ukrainians in need, points out the piles of clothes that have been arriving.

Donated clothes help in Ukraine. But there's one thing aid experts like better

While welcome, some donations don't address the needs of displaced and homeless Ukrainians who've lost nearly everything they own. Several aid groups are turning to a new tactic: cash aid.

Capitol Police officers try to hold off the crowds from inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. At the end of the day, windows and doors were smashed, trash littered the building and several people were dead.

Photos: A look back at the Jan. 6 insurrection

One year ago on Jan. 6, hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's electoral vote win.

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