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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAs hospitals across Indiana scramble to hire thousands of nurses, Ivy Tech Community College has landed an $8.75 million grant from Indiana University Health to expand its nursing program and increase student enrollment.
Ivy Tech will use the money to pay faculty and recruit staff, buy educational equipment and fund support services for students, the two organizations said Tuesday in a joint announcement.
Indianapolis-based Ivy Tech graduates more than 1,300 associate-degree nursing students each year, more than any other Indiana nursing school. It offers nursing programs at 18 of its 19 campuses, and plans to start a program at the remaining campus, in Hamilton County, next year.
“This grant will be a huge step in helping Ivy Tech meet the needs of our health system partners in a real and practical way,” Sue Ellspermann, president of Ivy Tech, said in written remarks. “Our ability to educate nurses and keep them in our state will create real value for our economy and the health of Indiana. We’re very proud to partner with IU Health and appreciate its investment in our program.”
Ivy Tech administrators told an Indiana General Assembly panel on Wednesday that it had to turn down 300 qualified applicants last year because it didn’t have enough spots open. The General Assembly is considering a bill that would allow nursing schools to increase enrollment and hire more part-time instructors.
Indianapolis-based IU Health, with 16 hospitals around the state, said it made the grant to try to ease a severe shortage of nurses. Labor market data from Emsi/Burning Glass estimates there are more than 4,000 openings for nurses today in Indiana, with a need for another 5,000 by 2031, due to retirements, reassignments and other factors.
“Our health care systems in Indiana are in critical need of skilled nurses, and Ivy Tech is well-positioned to deliver on this need,” Jason Gilbert, chief nurse executive at IU Health said in written remarks. “…This partnership with Ivy Tech is a significant step toward expanding health care delivery for Hoosiers for generations to come.”
Ivy Tech said it has been developing a plan for increasing nursing enrollment that includes investments in equipment, supplies and faculty, as well as tools to better support nursing students.
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Hopefully the big and great nursing schools in Indiana expand their programs too. Specifically, IUPUI (#31 in nursing), Purdue (#120 in nursing), and IU (unranked).
What rankings, exactly? What’s your source?
IU Health can afford much more… https://www.thestarpress.com/story/opinion/columnists/2022/01/09/michael-hicks-iu-healths-price-freeze-gimmick/9110296002/
They can but this still a generous move.
This is good news and is needed due to the shortage of nurses. It makes me wonder if similar measures will be needed in the future to attract teachers to the profession in light of greater demands, and the meddling of the state legislature into all parts of public education. Food for thought …
The nursing teacher shortage has been a problem for more than 15 years.
Serious question – are the nurses coming out of Ivy Tech educated to the level that is what is in demand? The story says that Ivy Tech is graduating nurses with Associates Degrees, but does that meet the demand, or is the demand for BSNs? And if the expanded Ivy Tech program isn’t meeting the demand, then are there expanded Associates to BSN programs coming? This sounds like a great start but it seems like it would fall short of accomplishing what’s truly needed to solve the problem.