Since joining HCA Healthcare in 2020, Galen has quickly expanded access to nursing education.
Galen College of Nursing is opening a new campus in Asheville, North Carolina, as it continues its efforts to educate a growing number of future nurses amid a national shortage, HCA Healthcare has announced.
The Asheville campus, expected to open in late September, will be the eighth new campus Galen College of Nursing has opened since joining HCA Healthcare in January 2020.
At the time, Galen offered nursing programs across five campus locations, as well as an online campus, and had a total enrollment of about 7,100, according to a press release. When the Asheville campus opens, Galen College of Nursing will have 13 campus locations and the nursing school’s total enrollment is expected to reach 10,000 this year.
“As part of HCA Healthcare, our potential to impact the lives of so many across the country has never been greater—not only by creating more opportunity for so many more called to nursing to achieve their dreams, but through the care those future nurses will provide to the people in our communities,” said Mark Vogt, chief executive officer for Galen College of Nursing.
“Together, we are expanding access to quality nursing education, enhancing our programming and creating more career advancement opportunities for nurses,” Vogt said. “Galen graduates are having a profound impact on patient care across the country, and we are focused on continuing to nurture a pipeline of potential nurses critical to healthcare in our communities.”
The partnership with Galen enhances HCA’s ability to care for patients and support nurses while helping to address the national nursing shortage, said Sam Hazen, HCA Healthcare’s chief executive officer.
HCA Healthcare, with more than 93,000 registered nurses holding positions from bedside caregivers to leadership roles, brought Galen under its umbrella, combining two leading nursing organizations to increase access to nursing education and to provide nursing career development opportunities for HCA Healthcare colleagues.
Nearly 2,000 HCA Healthcare colleagues are enrolled at Galen to help advance their careers. HCA Healthcare has loan repayment and tuition assistance programs for eligible colleagues.
Additionally, opportunities for collaboration between clinical practitioners and faculty are expected to help enhance teaching by connecting evidence-based practice to the delivery of nursing education.
To that end, Galen and Sarah Cannon, the Cancer Institute of HCA Healthcare, recently collaborated to develop an oncology care elective that will be available next month and teaches recent advances and emerging trends in oncology nursing care.
The other campuses Galen College of Nursing has opened since joining HCA Healthcare are in Pembroke Pines, Gainesville, and Sarasota, Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; and Austin, Texas.
Other campuses are in Cincinnati, Ohio; Hazard and Louisville, Kentucky; San Antonio, Texas; and St. Petersburg, Florida.
“We are expanding access to quality nursing education, enhancing our programming and creating more career advancement opportunities for nurses.”
— Mark Vogt, chief executive officer, Galen College of Nursing
Carol Davis is the Nursing Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.