A West Virginia healthcare system has partnered with a junior college on a program aimed at addressing the shortage of nurses in the state.
Mon Health System and West Virginia Junior College signed a letter of intent on Monday to launch a nursing education program that will put students at the school on an accelerated path to becoming nurses, officials said during a signing ceremony.
Mon Health nurses will serve as faculty and the students will have digital coursework as well as learning through work at the hospital, what Mon Health System President and CEO David Goldberg called patient-side, The Dominion Post reported.
The program plans to open enrollment in September and start its first class next April.
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The collaboration, Goldberg said, will serve "to bring not only the best nurses to patient-side through Mon Health, but keep people in this community, grow our own, take care of our own neighbors, family members and friends, so we continue to be the best healthcare location in north-central West Virginia and improve our healthcare outcomes."
West Virginia Junior College CEO Chad Callen said nursing shortages are at near crisis levels in some areas of the state.
"Such challenges require bold thinking and innovative, out-of-the-box approaches," he said.
