The state plans to spend $35 million of federal pandemic-relief aid over the next three years on tuition assistance, faculty recruitment, and college-employer partnerships to build up the number of nurses and social workers working in Connecticut.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced that initiative in a Wednesday morning email press release.
The newly launched program is called CT Health Horizons.
A collaboration among “Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU), the Office of Workforce Strategy (OWS), multiple state agencies, the University of Connecticut (UConn), the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges (CCIC), and the Connecticut Hospital Association,” the program is designed to address nursing and social worker workforce shortages through three strategies. To quote directly from the press release, those strategies include:
• Tuition assistance to incentivize low-income and minority students to enter accelerated and cost-effective nursing and social work programs.
• Recruitment and retention of faculty to rapidly expand seat capacity and train the next generation of nursing and behavioral health workers.
• Innovative programs to promote partnerships between employers and institutes of higher education to build career pathways.
“We have a significant nursing shortage in Connecticut, and yet our colleges and universities do not currently have capacity to increase the number of qualified nursing students they serve,” Lamont is quoted as saying in the press release. “By making this investment, we are taking a critical step toward expanding the number of nursing seats at our public and private institutions of higher education. We also know that the need for mental health services has only increased during the pandemic. This collaborative approach will help promote a highly educated behavioral health workforce.”
“Health care – everything from nursing to behavioral health – is core to who we are at CSCU,” CSCU President Terrence Cheng is quoted as saying in that same press release. “We offer the highest quality nursing and social work programs, but we need to be able to increase the number of students we serve. This program will help us do just that. We are proud to work with our state and higher education partners to advance Governor Lamont’s workforce goals.”
The press release states that the $35 million initiative was approved as part of the latest approved state budget bill. It’s funded with federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money.
“CSCU will serve as the general program manager and recipient of funds,” the press release reads, “and will work in tandem with UConn and CCIC to carry out the program.”
The initiative is estimated to provide tuition support to 1,200 students entering nursing and social work programs, with a focus on associate degree nursing (ADN) programs, accelerated bachelor in nursing (BSN) programs, and master of social work (MSW) programs. In addition, it is expected to expand educational seat capacity to serve more than 1,000 new students.
Accepting students who would not otherwise have made the cut for nursing school will not solve the problem; just like graduating students who can't read or write has not helped them in life.