Community Colleges Receive Grant for Associate Degree Nursing Regional Collaborative
College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita has received a $400,000 challenge grant from the Weingart Foundation to help fund a three-year pilot program intended to increase the number of nurses in the state, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. Under the program, called the Associate Degree Nursing Regional Collaborative, the College of the Canyons, Glendale College, Los Angeles Valley College, Pierce College and Ventura College will develop a shared curriculum with area hospitals to help students on waiting lists begin their associate degrees in nursing. The program is projected to cost $1.8 million, but local hospitals, including Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, Northridge Hospital Medical Center and Providence Holy Cross and Providence Saint Joseph medical centers, have committed a total of $235,000 to the program. Under the terms of the donation, College of the Canyons must raise matching funds to receive the Weingart grant, which will be used to purchase equipment for the program. "We're very fortunate that the Weingart Foundation recognized this unique and viable approach that will help solve the nursing shortage in our region," Sue Albert, dean of allied health at College of the Canyons, said. State community college associate degree programs produce more than two-thirds of registered nurse graduates in California, which is projected to have a shortage of 25,000 nurses by 2006, according to state officials (Los Angeles Daily News, 3/3).
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