Last December, Mirande Gross graduated from Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, with a bachelor’s degree in communications. But Gross has changed her mind and is heading back to school in May for a one-year accelerated nursing degree program. The pandemic that has sickened more than 28.2 million people in the United States and killed more than 500,000 helped convince her she wanted to become a nurse. “I was excited about working during the pandemic,” Gross, 22, said. “It didn’t scare me away.” Enrollment in baccalaureate nursing programs increased nearly 6 percent in 2020, to 250,856, according to preliminary results from an annual survey of 900 nursing schools by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. “In the pandemic, we saw an increased visibility of nurses, and I think that’s been inspirational to many people,” said Deb Trautman, president and CEO of the association, whose members represent nursing programs at the bachelor’s, master’s, …