VISALIA, Calif. – Kaweah Health has graduated an inaugural class of nurses under a new partnership that seeks to address a shortage in Tulare County.
In 2020, the hospital partnered with Unitek College, an institution that offers higher education in medicine and nursing throughout the country. It has physical campuses in California, Nevada, and New Mexico.
Thirteen graduates received their Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees this month.
The new nurses come at an opportune time, as there has been a decline in the number of people working in hospitals across the nation and the Central Valley.
The COVID-19 pandemic left significant impacts in the medical field — like stress and excessive workloads — which made the nursing shortage worsen. .
Kaweah Health officials say the hospital faced a 25% nursing shortage in 2021. That figure sparked the urge to close the gap and improve nurse capacity in the county.
The college proposed creating a program within Kaweah Health for prospective nurses who are interested in studying and working at the same time.
Dianne Cox, chief human resources officer at Kaweah Health, says the nursing shortage at its hospital is now 7%.
"We have 70 vacancies of registered nurses and about 1000 direct patient care registered nurses positions available. We're doing very well with recruitment and retention," Cox said. “We really believe that we will have solved our nursing shortage in Visalia and Tulare County.”
The program is primarily available to hospital employees, though there are some exceptions. To apply, employees must go through a testing process and provide references.
Currently, 160 employees are enrolled. After the 13 graduates who completed the program this month, the hospital expects roughly 50 participants will graduate each year after.
Interim Chief Nursing Officer Scott Baker says this program has great potential, especially since it could help fill vacancies by nursing staff who will soon retire.
“As we grow this program, and as we hire more of these nurses, this is going to feed the hospital,” Baker said. “Having this pool of nurses to pull in will refresh that, and as we grow them into clinical experts, it really balances out what we're going to be losing.”
Kaweah Health has also partnered in recent years with Porterville College and San Joaquin Valley College’s radiologic technology program to boost training and medical staffing.
