by Mary Helen Downey
RPSB, LSUA and CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Join Forces To Close Workforce Gap
The Rapides Parish School Board, together with Louisiana State University at Alexandria (LSUA) and CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Hospital, is working to accelerate the growth and development of nurses in Central Louisiana. Local healthcare and education communities want to ensure that high-quality healthcare is available to all in our area.
To bolster these efforts, LSUA hosted an event last month that provided over 240 sophomores, juniors and seniors with an opportunity to begin a journey in a healthcare career.
LSUA Chancellor Paul Coriel says, “With the continued workforce shortages in all health professions – especially nursing – we need a comprehensive ‘all hands on deck’ approach to appropriately address this crisis. Recruiting high school students into all health professions is crucial to short-term & long-term success and to continued accessibility of quality healthcare for everyone in Central Louisiana.”
Following CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini’s $1 million scholarship to future LSUA students pursuing a career in nursing, the hospital hopes to cultivate successful practitioners. The students who are awarded the scholarship will have not only financial support, but certification assistance, and most notably, an offer to be employed by Cabrini Hospital following graduation from the LSUA School of Nursing and the passing of the NCLEX exam.
“This collaborative effort between the RPSB, LSUA and Christus Health will create an educational and financial pathway for students to enter the workforce with a secure job in healthcare,” CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Hospital CEO Monte Wilson says.
The goal of this collaboration is to spark interest in long-term nursing careers.
Superintendent Jeff Powell says, “LSUA offers dual enrollment courses that afford students the opportunity to accelerate through college coursework while in high school. Students in RPSB can earn an Associate Degree in addition to their diploma. We want to encourage our students to take advantage of these opportunities, especially in an effort to close the healthcare workforce gap.”
By bringing higher education and healthcare partners together in one space, students can more easily access the resources and education they need to take their next step in choosing a meaningful and rewarding career.
