Jessica Cejnar / Monday, Feb. 24, 2020 @ 12:08 p.m. / Education, Health
New Nursing Programs at CR, HSU Seek To Tackle Shortage By Growing Local Workforce
State Sen. Mike McGuire shakes hands with students in College of the Redwoods' new LVN to RN program. Photo: Jessica Cejnar
Connie Stewart couldn’t contain her excitement as she took in the scene in College of the Redwoods’ Room 34.
“There’s nothing like seeing scrubs,” she exclaimed, “10-years in the making!”
Stewart, director of Humboldt State University’s California Center for Rural Policy, trekked to Del Norte County to celebrate the 10 students milling about the room in maroon scrubs. Those students are the first cohort to start the new Licensed Vocational Nurse to Registered Nurse program at CR’s Del Norte Education Center about four weeks ago.
Once they obtain their RN, the students will be able to enter HSU’s Bachelors of Science in Nursing program. HSU’s RN to BSN program is expected to launch this fall, according to State Sen. Mike McGuire’s office.
Del Norte County’s representative in the state senate helped launch CR’s new program on Saturday, celebrating the achievement with CR President Keith Flamer, HSU President Tom Jackson, Sutter Coast Hospital CEO Mitch Hanna, and Geneva Wiki, California Endowment senior program manager. Local elected and healthcare representatives also celebrated the milestone, which is designed to grow enough nurses from within to address a shortage in Humboldt and Del Norte counties.
Jesse Alvarado, an RN student at College of the Redwoods, discusses the importance of a program that allows him to pursue a career locally. Photo: Jessica Cejnar
Once a graduate of the program receives his or her BSN from Humboldt State, McGuire said, they’ll have the option to work at Sutter Coast Hospital or other hospitals in the area.
“This severe shortage impacts the health and wellbeing of thousands of patients every year and it significantly increases, not just the cost, but the delivery of healthcare,” McGuire said of the nursing shortage. “Our philosophy has been simple and it’s this: We need to keep quality healthcare close to home and that means we need to grow our own nurses. We need to be able to provide opportunities for family-sustaining nursing careers in Crescent City, Hiouchi, Eureka, Fortuna and everywhere in between.”
With the LVN to RN program at College of the Redwoods and the BSN program at Humboldt State University, McGuire said the North Coast has its very own comprehensive nursing program. The milestone wouldn’t have been possible without the greater Del Norte County community.
“The Del Norte community has had this vision for over a decade now, and numerous neighbors have been influential in getting us to this critical point,” he said. “Their vision, their tenacity and their commitment to a stronger community must be recognized and we owe Del Norte, we owe them a round of applause and a thank you.”
The 10 students who make up CR’s first cohort include LVN students and paramedics who began their clinical rotation with an orientation at Sutter Coast Hospital, CR President Keith Flamer said. He said he hopes every student in the program progresses to HSU.
"You've been asking for this program for years and we're proud CR is able to partner to make it happen," Flamer told the community.
To address the shortage, Humboldt and Del Norte counties need to hire 75 nurses every year for the next decade, Stewart said citing labor market research.
“If we don’t grow our own, we’re not going to get them,” she said.
The California Center for Rural Policy received a $5 million endowment to create a healthcare career pathway at the middle and high school level in Del Norte and Humboldt counties, Stewart said. CCRP has worked with Del Norte Unified School District, the Humboldt County Office of Education, CR and industry leaders, including Sutter Coast Hospital, to create the LVN to RN to BSN pipeline, she said.
The Humboldt County Office of Education contributed $1.1 million toward a healthcare career pathways program, Stewart said. CR funding also created a certification program for medical assistants, she said.
The California Endowment also contributed more than $1.5 million to grow a health career pathway in Del Norte County, Wiki told the Outpost. CCRP received the grant, but the funding was to build the infrastructure in Del Norte, Wiki said.
For Humboldt and Del Norte counties, growing its own workforce doesn’t just apply to nurses and medical assistants. Stewart said the Vesper Society, a San Francisco faith-based health justice foundation, is paying CCRP to explore a behavioral health school-to-career pathway. The goal is to increase Humboldt and Del Norte residents’ access to substance abuse treatment and mental health treatment.
“Growing our own,” Stewart said. “That’s the next step.”
Sutter Coast Hospital CEO Mitch Hanna said Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital in Auburn, Calif. faced a similar nursing shortage and created a similar program at the community college in that area. That program addressed nursing shortages at other Sutter affiliates in the Sacramento area, he said. Hanna said he hoped the LVN to RN program at CR and the RN to BSN program at Humboldt State will be a similar success for Crescent City and Del Norte County.
Hanna also linked a shortage of local nurses to overall healthcare affordability in Del Norte County. The hospital had 20 traveling nurses when Hanna, CR and HSU representatives began discussing the need for a healthcare pipeline. Sutter flies those nurses in, Hanna said, houses them and there’s a middleman negotiating salaries and rates, which also impacts patient cost.
“Hopefully this will help bring us in a very qualified workforce and we are optimistic that it will help to alleviate the cost drivers,” Hanna said, adding that primary care services is the top issue in a recent community health needs assessment. “I know this is a huge issue nationwide, but in this community in particular, it’s exacerbated.”
According to Hanna, Sutter Coast Hospital provided a $200,000 investment into the LVN to RN to BSN program. He noted that his patients will be the program’s beneficiaries.
For RN student Jesse Alvarado, the program means he’ll be able to earn his BSN without leaving home. Alvarado became a certified nurse’s assistant and a licensed vocational nurse locally. He’s currently working in home health at Sutter Coast Hospital.
Alvarado said he plans to transfer to HSU soon. His ultimate goal is to become a family nurse practitioner.
“To be able to obtain an education locally has lifted so many burdens that I didn’t know I could face, so it’s been amazing,” he said. “I just cannot wait to serve my community (with) an education that I got in my community.
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