How can a student juggle family/household responsibilities, work sufficient hours for a sustaining wage, and still fulfill the unpaid clinical practicum hours needed to earn a nursing degree?
This pain point led Trellis Foundation to launch the Streamlining Success in Nursing Programs initiative in Texas. The answer may lie in apprenticeship designations, work-based learning for upskilling paraprofessionals, tuition cost-sharing with employers, or other creative solutions. We could not be more excited to partner with UpSkill America at the Aspen Institute for a Texas cohort of colleges and universities ready to innovate and experiment alongside us.
The project has just begun, but we’re already excited to share a press release and a podcast conversation detailing the initial rationale and structure for the cohort. In addition, an initial in-person convening in Austin in December brought together the cohort of higher education and workforce partners selected for this project:
Kilgore College – Through formalized partnerships with Christus Health System and regional healthcare providers, Kilgore College is launching an innovative Nursing Apprenticeship Model designed to address critical gaps in nursing education and workforce development. Lamar State College Port Arthur – Project Upward Mobility Jasper will expand Lamar State College-Port Arthur’s nursing program to the Jasper, Texas, region, admitting 20 students annually. This initiative aims to increase access to local nursing education, addressing critical workforce shortages and providing career advancement opportunities in an underserved area.
McMurry University – McMurry University’s Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing’s project, Bridging the Demands: Enhancing Completion of Working Nursing Students through Targeted Support, will increase completion and transitions into nursing roles for working and low-income nursing students by implementing a work-based learning partnership with Hendrick Health.
San Antonio College – Project Clinical Learn and Earn will work with San Antonio College’s School of Nursing (Alamo Colleges District) and will target students within the Career Mobility Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) or military combat medic to Registered Nurse (RN) programs.
Texas A&M Corpus Christi – Project SNIPS aims to develop a model where selected nursing students in TAMU-CC’s pre-licensure BSN clinical courses are paid for direct patient care clinical hours by 1) increasing the relevance of the academic clinical objectives and 2) potentially increasing the hospital partner’s activity in student selection for the project’s clinical group.
University of Texas, Houston – The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, – Cizik School of Nursing (CSON) project Developing a Work-Based Clinical Model to Streamline Success in Nursing will create academic-practice partnerships for undergraduate nursing students, because integrating paid clinical employment with academic credit supports student success, workforce readiness, and long-term nursing workforce development.
Workforce Board of West Central Texas – The proposed project will evaluate the return on investment of Hendrick Medical Center’s paid clinical program, refine and develop a replicable framework, and expand the model to rural partner hospitals to benefit students across multiple regional institutions, because increased access to paid clinical experiences supports stronger healthcare workforce pipelines in West Central Texas.
Workforce Solutions Rural Capital – Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area’s Rural Nursing Initiative will convene business and education partners to begin the hard work of changing healthcare policies and practices that currently prevent institutions of higher education from effectively enrolling, retaining, and graduating nursing students and employers from hiring and retaining nurses in the nine counties they serve.
Through a day-and-a-half of robust conversations, the group has already surfaced common pain points and opportunities to share lessons learned and best practices. Check out this post from UpSkill America for reflections on key themes highlighted by the participants.>>
We’re excited to see so many existing models for ensuring students can earn while they learn. Stay tuned for updates as the project progresses!
About the Author
Jenny Achilles joined Trellis Foundation with nearly a decade of higher education service in various capacities, including student affairs and study abroad advising. She serves on steering committees for local and national committees, such as Advance Together (an initiative of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas); the Funders Collaborative for Higher Education in Prison & Reentry Support; and the Grantmakers for Education (GFE) Postsecondary Access & Attainment Impact Group. She previously served on the Membership Committee for the National Scholarship Providers Association from 2015-2017 and the Texas Rural Funders Membership & Dues Task Force. She also serves as Vice Chair for the City of Austin Community Development Commission and as a director for the Texas Lyceum. Jenny served as a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar to El Salvador in 2006 and is an alumna of Leadership Austin. She earned a Bachelor of Science in communication from Lamar University and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Austin in journalism and public policy, with a focus on nonprofit studies.