Grants for nursing education have been awarded to seven California community college-university partnerships.
The partnerships, in the second phase of a two-phase initiative, will receive up to $250,000 each to develop models of how colleges can create seamless transitions between associate’s degree and bachelor’s degree nursing programs, creating a better-educated nursing workforce.
Each partnership will develop a model that could be replicated in other regions in California.
“California community colleges educate 70 percent of California’s registered nurses. By partnering with four-year universities, community colleges can create pathways for more nurses to continue their education and receive bachelor’s degrees, increasing the quality of healthcare throughout the state,” said Paul Lanning, president and CEO of the Foundation for California Community Colleges.
The grant recipients are:
- Cabrillo College and Hartnell College with CSU Monterey Bay
- City College of San Francisco and College of San Mateo with San Francisco State University
- College of Marin, Mendocino College, Napa Valley College, Santa Rosa Junior College and Solano Community College with Sonoma State University
- College of the Redwoods and Shasta College with Humboldt State University
- Fresno City College and West Hills College-Coalinga with California State University (CSU), Fresno, CSU Dominguez Hills, CSU Stanislaus, Fresno Pacific University, National University and University of Phoenix
- Los Medanos College, Contra Costa College, Ohlone College and Chabot College with CSU East Bay
- Santa Barbara City College, Ventura College and Moorpark College with CSU Channel Islands
Funding is provided by the Foundation for California Community Colleges and the Kaiser Permanente Fund for Health Education at the East Bay Community Foundation, through collaboration with the California Institute for Nursing and Health Care (CINHC) and the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency.
The grants are part of a two-phase initiative launched in 2008 to encourage more collaboration between community colleges and four-year universities. During the first phase, six partnerships received one-year planning grants. The results and best practices learned in the planning phase have helped shape execution plans for the new grant period.