Some Northern Virginia Community College nursing students will be paid a stipend while they train in a hospital. It’s part of a program that aims to address Virginia’s nursing shortage.
NOVA received a $213,180 grant from the Virginia Department of Health, enabling it to roll out the state’s Earn to Learn Nursing Education Acceleration Program.
Through the program, about 30 students will be paid while they learn on the job. It will start with 10 students and increase each semester, according to Dr. Shelly Powers, provost of NOVA’s Medical Education Campus.
“Many of our students are in need of financial support,” Powers said. “Many of our students have to work during their matriculation in our nursing program. This earn to learn will allow students to not have to work, but can focus on their academics.”
To launch the program, NOVA is partnering with HCA Healthcare’s Capital Division, enabling students to do their clinical training at sites including Reston Hospital Center, StoneSprings Hospital Center and Dominion Hospital.
An on-site staff member will provide oversight and guidance, Powers said, and the program also includes a dedicated education unit.
The unit, Powers said, is a clinical teaching model that’s designed to offer leadership from a nurse within a hospital, “and really prepare the student to be very confident and very strong when they enter into the health care arena.”
That model has also proven effective in improving students’ board pass rates after graduating from the program, Powers said.
“It really helps to expand the health care workforce through a stable education pipeline that will help to produce more experienced, more confident and highly sought after nurse graduates ready for employment at our local hospitals,” Powers said.
Often, Powers said, students will get clinical experience at multiple hospitals, spending just over a month at one location before moving to another. Through the program, though, “there’s continuity of education.”
“This partnership with HCA will definitely strengthen the future workforce pipeline, and it gives NOVA nursing students valuable insight into a prospective employer as they embark upon their career,” Powers said.
While the VDH grant is considered one-time funding, “because this is so critical in the health care arena, we are looking to be able to sustain this particular project with future funders,” Powers said.
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