TOLEDO, Ohio — There's a nursing shortage and it's important to get students to eventually fill those roles.
So, Mercy Health is offering some financial help.
Starting this summer, The Blue Healer tuition award will be given to any new nursing student in the program at Mercy College.
This is done because it's two-fold. It helps the students get through school by getting some financial help and it helps the area by working to lessen the nursing shortage.
Every new nursing student at Mercy College is slated to get $2,000 toward their first-semester tuition.
It's part of a new partnership between Mercy Health and the college.
"We're trying to make it to where the student has a path from beginning to end and they can not worry so much about the financial burden and concentrate on the academic issues that they have to succeed with throughout their career here," Ken Ryalls, vice president of academic affairs at Mercy College, said.
Hospital systems in our area and across the country are feeling the pressure of the current nursing shortage. So Mercy Health stepped in to give future nurses a little push with some incentive.
"We just found that a lot of people didn't know how to get to where they wanted to be. So working with the college, we have several options for students," Mercy Health Chief Nursing Officer Deborah Bryant said.
According to Mercy College, there are 432 spots available for new nursing students in the coming year.
If every seat gets filled, it's possible $864,000 dollars could be awarded in tuition assistance.
"That would go a long way to alleviating the nursing shortage at least in the toledo area which is really our goal over the next 10 years," Ryalls said. "So, I don't see it going anywhere over the next 10 years. If anything, we'll try to be more creative on how to enhance the program in other ways."
This new award is just one of the ways Mercy is helping nursing students at the college. Mercy also provides loan forgiveness and other tuition benefits.
The application process for this summer is currently open. If you're interested in applying, more information can be found here.