Schools boost programs to offset shortage - Dayton Business Journal:

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In the past three years, Dave Collins, dean of life and healtjh sciencesfor Sinclair, said the school has expanded its capacitty from admitting 225 nursingg students a year to 275 students. Enrollmenr in all health care programzs has increased 20 percent across the boarf in the pastfive years, he added. Collins addresse Sinclair's role in the local health care shortage atthe 's Businessz of Health: Workforce forum held June 17 at the in He joined industry leaders on the panel includintg Dr. Keith Bricking, associate medical director and medica education directorat ; Leslie nurse recruiter for and Stacey human resources director at .
Aside from boostingt its nursing program, Sinclair also face an added burden of finding enoug qualified healthcare educators. Collins said Sinclair would like to allow more studentds into itsnursing program, but the schoopl needs more educators to make that "We think the nursing shortage is a huge problem," he "But we see our shortag of nursing educators as an even bigger and we actually compete with hospitals and othetr organizations for experienced nurses." Collins said the program at Sinclaidr has been popular, with many students placecd on a wait list before admittance.
Othed health care workers also are takint steps to tap into younger studentd and address the worker shortagethrough education. Feeling that students with connections to the Dayton area are likely to work locallyh after finishingtheir training, recruiters like Kantner have worked through volunteer programs and camps to present nursing as an option to students as early as grammar school. "We have to starty promoting thiscareer earlier," she said. "A lot of the job fairsa at highschools don't have nursing as an option for students, and that'z something we need to work to fix.
" Kantner said by emphasizin nursing and exposing children to the profession the better the workforce in health care would likely be in the Lawson, who said Good Samaritan also provideas similar volunteer programs and camps to introducew children to nursing, said partnerships with area schoopl systems also help to draw in young For example, Good Samaritan formed a partnership with last Septemberf where the school will receive athletic traininv and sports medicine services, funds to support its athleticx programs and health and nutrition educatio n in exchange for naming rightss to its football stadium.
But what the hospitao also gains, Lawson said, is an invaluable exposurr to teens as they start to makecareet decisions. "As many times as we have a partnershipp witha school, that givews us an opportunity to reallhy have a relationship with those interested individuals at a reallyh young age," she said. And as important as those partnershipsx are, Collins said the partnerships between the hospitalw and Sinclair are justas meaningful. Nursing studentds gain their practical experience working at area With everyone working together to solved thesame problem, he said the community is likelhy to find a solution.
"The truthj is we are all concernerd with putting quality graduatesout there, because we are goinv to be consumers of that care ourselves," he