How SSM Health Is Lowering Barriers, Expanding Access to Nursing Education

CNOs should make expanding access to nursing education a strategic priority to improve healthcare across the country, says this CNE.

The pipeline from nursing school to the workforce is one of the most important focuses for CNOs who want to ensure the sustainability of the industry.

According to Amy Wilson, chief nurse executive at SSM Health, there are three major hurdles that CNOs need to overcome in that pipeline. The first is the number of graduates being produced annually across the country.

"There is a mismatch between the number of graduates and the number of practicing nurses versus the need that we have across the country, especially as our population continues to age and continues to develop chronic illnesses," Wilson said. "We just need more nurses than we're producing today."

The second barrier is access, as it has become harder and harder to be admitted to nursing schools, Wilson explained.

"I think the average GPA necessary is about 3.89 to even be considered for entry into nursing school today," Wilson said. "That leaves a lot of qualified capable candidates out who have the capacity and the will and the skill to be successful in nursing schools."

The third barrier has to do with transition to practice and the transition from having a lot of support in an educational environment to having less support in the clinical environment. CNOs need to be asking themselves how to make that transition to practice easier, Wilson explained.

These barriers were the inspiration behind SSM Health’s Aspiring Nurse Program.

The vision behind the program

The Aspiring Nurse Program was developed in partnership with Adtalem's largest nursing institution, Chamberlain University, which was important for the goal of expanding the program.

"When we were thinking about partners, one of the things that was important to use was to think about how [we could] do this at scale across our geographic areas, which include four states, and there are very few schools who are able to do that," Wilson said. "Chamberlain was able to meet that first need."

The program aims to expand access for 'non-traditional students,' Wilson explained, who are maybe already in the workforce or who have family obligations or caretaking responsibilities they need to adhere to.

"As a result of broadening the opportunity, you start to get applicants who are at a different point in their life, who have different needs," Wilson said. "Then they are able to wrap around what they call social determinants of learning and wrap around the students who are typically non-traditional students to ensure that they are successful through their BSN program."

Another major goal is to train nurses from the community who can go back into the community, Wilson said. While some students may want to leave to go to a destination school, others do not want to do that or don't have the opportunity to do so.

"How do we educate people in our communities who want to be a nurse, who want to have a bachelor's degree in nursing, to then care for our communities?" Wilson said. "We think that not only improves the health in our communities, but it creates stickiness with us at SSM Health and that they will choose SSM Health as a place to practice."

Providing financial access

Additionally, SSM Health provides financial assistance to individuals so they can have access to education.

"We were able to develop a strategy with Chamberlain University to ease the financial burden of the student both at the entry point and then on the back end once they start practicing with SSM Health," Wilson said.

The program provides both financial assistance and employment at the end of the program, as well as the opportunity to be employed as a nurse extern during the program's duration.

"It's those three components coming together that also will help ease the burden of the transition to practice because they're learning in our environment, they're working in our environment, and they're also learning their curriculum through Chamberlain University," Wilson said.

The nurse extern position is a paid student position that allows the student to access tuition reimbursement while they're in school to lower the financial burden, Wilson explained. Then, upon graduation, if they choose to accept the graduate nurse role at SSM Health, the organization will begin to start paying back their student loans up to a four-year period depending on the loan amount.

"What's innovative about this program is we do not require any type of contractual commitment for this program, so you're basically working it off as we're paying off your student loan," Wilson said.

For other CNOs who want to try a similar approach within their health systems, Wilson recommended making the contribution to improving nursing education across the country a strategic priority. When making the pitch to the rest of the C-Suite, CNOs should have a strong financial plan with demonstrable ROI and outcomes, from both a clinical quality and financial perspective.

"It's about being open, being willing to have a lot of contributors around the table and thought leaders to have a dynamic, thoughtful, diverse discussion about how we continue to improve health and solve some of these complex problems that we have in healthcare," Wilson said.