Hospital, college sign deal

By CAITLIN SULLIVAN/Staff

The hospital and college are partnering in hopes of easing the nursing shortage that plagues this area and the country.
In a partnership forged last week, Johnston Memorial Hospital agreed to pay $240,000 for three years of salary for a Virginia Highlands Community College faculty member. The hospital hopes that a college instructor will be able to bridge the gap between nursing students and the hospital. He or she would work with students at the college and at the hospital with the aim of recruiting and retaining nursing students.
“This (partnership) will be good for our program and the hospital,” VHCC Dean of Nursing and Allied Health Kathy Mitchell said.
The 400 students in the Virginia Appalachian Tricollege Nursing Program, a consortium that includes VHCC, Mountain Empire Community College and Southwest Virginia Community College, use hospitals across the region to conduct clinicals.
Mitchell said the new faculty member would benefit the students because they’ll have firsthand knowledge of the hospital.
“(The students will) get a much more thorough experience,” she said.
Johnston Memorial Chief Nursing Officer Kathy Tickle said, “They’ll have a foot in both camps. They can teach theory to practice.”
She said the hospital also hopes the new collaboration will recruit more nursing students to stay in the area.
“There’s a tremendous nursing shortage,” Tickle said. “Twenty-five percent of nurses will retire within the next five years. So we really need to be working with schools in the area to meet the nursing needs.”
Tickle said the hospital hires between 10 and 20 nurses a year, but filling night shifts and experienced critical care positions can take two to three months.
She said aging baby boomers in need of more care and retiring nurses have combined to create to a nursing shortage across the country.