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JACKSONVILLE, Ill. (WCIA) – Niko Scott graduated from Illinois College’s nursing program.
He said he’s always been interested in helping people.
“So at first it was psychology, but then I wanted a more hands-on experience,” Scott said. “So I switched to nursing and I loved it ever since with clinicals, being in the hospital.”
Now, Illinois College and Memorial Health are teaming up to train the next generation of nurses like Scott. Memorial Health is committing $4 million dollars to help with that.
Memorial Health officials say it will help address the nursing shortage by expanding the school’s program.
“That way, they are more likely to stay here and want to take care of their communities and give back to their communities,” Marsha Prater, Memorial Health’s chief nursing officer, said.
Data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing shows the number of students enrolled in nursing programs went down last year.
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But nursing schools also turned away more than 78,000 qualified applicants in 2022.
Memorial Health believes the partnership will grow the number of students graduating from the college’s bachelor of science in nursing program every year from about 20 nurses to 100 in the next five years.
“Nursing programs are expensive, they’re very science based, and they have a huge clinical component of their education,” Prater said. “Not every university is willing to commit to those kinds of programs, but this has been a great one and Illinois College has long been interested in helping this community and the health of this region.”
Hannah Sitton, a senior at Illinois College, said she’s excited about the partnership.
“We’ll get really great clinical experience here and I’m sure they’re going to be sending some of their health professionals our way to give our students advice and guidance along the way, and they’re going to offer us so many resources,” Sitton said.
Half of the $4 million from Memorial Health will go toward nursing scholarships for students.
