THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The biggest for-profit hospital system in the country is dropping some serious cash to fix a major problem. HCA Healthcare is spending $4.8 million to fight the nursing shortage and build a direct pipeline of new workers for Los Robles Regional Medical Center. This is a massive investment in the future of local healthcare.
🎓 Pepperdine Joins the Fray
HCA Healthcare put this money toward helping Pepperdine University launch a brand new nursing school. This school is located at the Pepperdine Calabasas campus. It actually just opened up this fall and things are already moving fast. The whole idea is to create a steady stream of well-trained nurses who are ready to jump right into the workforce at Los Robles.
🩺 Training on the Job
The program is already in full swing. Nursing students from the new school have already started heading over to Los Robles for their clinical training. This is a smart move for the hospital because it lets them get to know the students before they even graduate. The hope is that by training them at the hospital now, these students will be much more likely to say yes to a job offer when they finally get their degrees.
This $4.8 million partnership is a direct response to how hard it has been to find enough nurses lately. By creating their own pipeline, HCA Healthcare and Pepperdine are trying to make sure Thousand Oaks has the medical staff it needs for years to come.