Grove City College has signed an agreement with Cleveland Clinic that will allow nursing students to do clinical work in one of the world-class healthcare provider’s hospitals or outpatient centers.
“This agreement provides our students with a great opportunity to learn and work in a host of settings in the Cleveland Clinic’s expansive system. The Cleveland Clinic is one of America’s greatest health care institutions and its integration of clinical and hospital care with research and education ensures our students will have a robust professional experience,” Nursing Program Director Janey A. Roach said.
The agreement marks a new phase for the College’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Program, which was launched two years ago and will welcome its third class of students this fall. Members of the first class, now in their sophomore year, will be eligible soon to begin taking higher-level courses that require 30 hours of clinical experience in professional settings like those in the Cleveland Clinic system.
Having this and other agreements in place with regional hospitals and health care systems is necessary to deliver on the promise of the College’s innovative BSN program. Offered by Grove City College’s Charles Jr. and Betty Johnson School of Nursing in partnership with Butler County Community College (BC3), the BSN program includes coursework at both campuses, which allows students to get an excellent, Christ-centered liberal arts and sciences education and high-quality clinical and professional training.
In tandem with the agreement, an anonymous donor has established a need-based scholarship for senior nursing students who want to do their clinical work at a Cleveland Clinic hospital.
“The Pew Crile Nursing Scholarship Endowment honors the foundational leadership of two pillars of healthcare and higher education, J. Howard Pew and George Washington Crile,” Brian Powell ’03, senior director of development for the College, said.
Pew, a member of Grove City College’s class of 1900, was an oil industry pioneer and longtime benefactor of the College. Crile founded the Cleveland Clinic in 1921. Their legacies live on in the community sustaining institutions they were devoted to.
Two fourth year nursing classes – Public Health Nursing and Nursing Leadership Seminar -- require the clinical component. “For both courses, students will identify an experience that meets the course objectives,” Roach said. “The community experience could require working with clients afflicted by homelessness and/or substances abuse. The leadership course would involve working with a nurse leader in a health care environment.”
Cleveland Clinic operates 19 hospitals and more than 200 outpatient centers in northeast Ohio, southeast Florida, Las Vegas, Canada, London, and Abu Dhabi.
The College has also reached a placement agreement with Allegheny Health Network and is in the process of finalizing pacts with other regional health systems and hospitals. To accommodate students who may look beyond the western Pennsylvania-northeastern Ohio region to complete their clinical requirements, the College will pursue additional agreements with specific hospitals and health systems as needed, Roach said.