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University Hospitals and ������ are joining forces to address the ongoing nursing shortage in Northeast Ohio through a new nursing education initiative that will increase the number of baccalaureate-degreed nurses who enter the workforce each year.

This program will better meet the needs of students, employers and the community and will serve as a model for other communities around the United States who face similar challenges.

Nursing Challenges

Specifically, the program will tackle the challenges that nursing students face at every stage of their education and careers by:

• Instituting an additional cohort of students in Kent State’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program to be admitted each year. UH will support these students in the following ways:
  • Expanding financial support by means of the UH Nursing Scholars program, which will provide $12,000 in financial support to 20 students for their senior year at Kent State, contingent on their employment with UH for at least two years after graduation.
  • Recruiting experienced UH nurses to serve as clinical instructors for the program.
• Increasing availability of required clinical placements through additional rotations at UH facilities.

“University Hospitals is excited to enhance our existing relationship with ������ and expand the opportunity to bring more individuals into the nursing field,” said UH Chief Human Resource Officer Thomas Snowberger.

“The University Hospitals Scholars program will provide critical financial support for students, diverse clinical sites in the University Hospital system, and expand the opportunity for more students to experience the excellent education offered at ������ College of Nursing,” noted Barbara Broome, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, dean of Kent State’s College of Nursing. “It will provide diverse clinical sites, employment opportunities and additional financial support for committed students.”

Addressing the Nursing Need

By 2020, the Nursing Forecaster of the Center for Health Affairs estimates that Northeast Ohio will need at least another 2,850 nurses to care for the rapidly aging local population. Nationally, those estimates rise to nearly one million additional nurses needed to adequately care for the total number of patients.

New Nursing Education Program

A significant percentage of these nurses will require the additional education and experience gained from a four-year degree, the BSN, to handle the increasingly complex healthcare needs of a growing population of older patients. In fact, the Institute of Medicine has issued a recommendation that 80 percent of the nursing workforce have a baccalaureate degree by 2020. Northeast Ohio’s percentage is approaching 40 percent, thus this bold collaboration will provide a strong boost toward the national goal.

When the UH-Kent State program reaches full capacity, it will produce an additional 80 BSN graduates annually.

About

University Hospitals, Cleveland

Founded in 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of 18 hospitals, more than 50 health centers and outpatient facilities, and 200 physician offices in 16 counties throughout northern Ohio. The system’s flagship academic medical center, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, located in Cleveland’s University Circle, is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The main campus also includes University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children’s hospitals in the nation; University Hospitals MacDonald Women’s Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute, a high-volume national referral center for complex cardiovascular procedures; and University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. UH is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research programs in the nation, including cancer, pediatrics, women’s health, orthopedics, radiology, neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, digestive health, transplantation and urology. UH Cleveland Medical Center is perennially among the highest performers in national ranking surveys, including “America’s Best Hospitals” from U.S. News & World Report. UH is also home to Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development. UH is one of the largest employers in Northeast Ohio with 28,000 physicians and employees. Advancing the Science of Health and the Art of Compassion is UH’s vision for benefitting its patients into the future and To Heal. To Teach. To Discover. is the organization’s unwavering mission. 

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������ is one of 76 public higher-research universities, as categorized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and is ranked in the first-tier list of Best National Universities by U.S. News & World Report. With eight campuses spanning Northeast Ohio, a College of Podiatric Medicine, a Regional Academic Center, and academic sites in major world cities such as New York City, Geneva and Florence, Kent State is one of Ohio’s leading public universities and a major educational, economic and cultural resource far beyond the Northeast Ohio region it has served since

1910. The student body comprises more than 38,000 students, including more than 1,700 international students from 100 countries, and the worldwide alumni family exceeds 245,000. The addition of new learning environments from the sciences to the arts and the development of exciting new academic programs such as aerospace engineering, geographic information science and business analytics characterize Kent State’s focus on transformational educational experiences.

������’s College of Nursing

In existence for more than 50 years, the College of Nursing at ������ is one of the largest and most comprehensive nursing programs in the nation with more than 12,000 alumni worldwide. As part of Kent State’s eight-campus system, the college provides more than 2,000 nursing students courses of study at the baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral levels.

Discover Kent State Nursing

Media Contacts

Lynn Novelli, University Hospitals, Lynn.Novelli@UHhospitals.org, 440-667-0274

Kathleen Norman, ������, knorma11@kent.edu, 330-672-0441