Nursing Training Coming Closer to Home!

Under CEO Tim Curry's leadership, Avoyelles Hospital expands Nursing Education with LSUA!

Avoyelles Hospital is expanding its commitment to healthcare education and workforce development through a new partnership with Louisiana State University of Alexandria that will provide additional nursing education, clinical rotations and hands on training opportunities in Avoyelles Parish.

The collaboration is part of the Rural Health Education and Training Pathways Program (RHETP), managed in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Health. The initiative brings together LSUA, Avoyelles Hospital and other rural healthcare partners to expand nursing education capacity and strengthen the healthcare workforce serving rural Louisiana communities.

For Avoyelles Hospital CEO Tim Curry, the partnership represents another step toward a goal the hospital has been working toward for several years, creating opportunities for local residents to pursue healthcare careers, receive meaningful training close to home and ultimately build their careers in the communities where they live.

“One of the most important things we can do for the future of healthcare in Avoyelles Parish is invest in our own people,” Curry said. “There are students, young adults and working adults right here in our community who want careers in healthcare. Many of them want to build their lives here, raise their families here and take care of their friends, neighbors and loved ones close to home. One of our responsibility as a local healthcare organization is to help create pathways that make that possible.”

Bringing nursing education into the hospital

Under the agreement, Avoyelles Hospital will provide dedicated educational space for learning laboratory operations, collaborate with LSUA on outreach and recruitment, facilitate student clinical experiences and participate in long term sustainability planning.

The program is designed to expand LSUA nursing students clinical experiences from Clinical Nursing I through Clinical Nursing IV, while LSUA faculty and site instructors supervise students in accordance with university policies, accreditation requirements, Louisiana State Board regulations and hospital standards.

The partnership also calls for a dedicated learning laboratory at Avoyelles Hospital equipped with simulation and educational resources. The MOU identifies equipment including hospital beds, patient mannequins, IV training equipment, smartboards, furnishings and related educational resources.

The overall objective is not simply to provide clinical rotations, but to increase nursing education capacity, strengthen workforce readiness, support student success and improve the availability of healthcare professionals serving rural Louisiana.

“This is much bigger than providing a place for students to complete clinical hours,” Curry said. “We want Avoyelles Hospital to become a place where education and healthcare come together. Students can learn in a real hospital environment, work alongside healthcare professionals and experience what it means to care for patients in a rural community. At the same time, we have an opportunity to introduce talented students to our hospital and our community and hopefully give them a reason to build their careers here.”

The vision

The partnership also builds upon an investment Avoyelles Hospital made approximately a year ago when the hospital established its Education Center.

Curry said the vision behind the facility was to create a permanent home for education, professional development and healthcare workforce training in Avoyelles Parish.

“When we developed the Avoyelles Hospital Education Center, we didn’t want it to simply be another building,” Curry said. “The vision was to create a place where a high school student exploring healthcare, a college student completing clinical training, one of our employees advancing his or her career, or an adult looking for a new profession could have an opportunity to learn and grow.”

That investment now provides physical infrastructure that can support partnerships such as the new LSUA initiative.

“Seeing LSUA students training here and seeing additional educational resources coming into this facility is exactly the type of opportunity we envisioned when the Education Center was created,” Curry said. “It is exciting to see that vision continuing to develop.”

Building a healthcare workforce from within

The nursing initiative is one component of Avoyelles Hospital’s broader effort to work with universities, colleges and other educational partners to develop a stronger local healthcare workforce.

That workforce extends beyond registered nurses. Hospitals depend on professionals across dozens of disciplines, including nurses, surgical technologists, radiologic technologists, laboratory professionals, respiratory-care professionals, therapists, physicians, advanced-practice providers and numerous other clinical and support positions.

LSUA itself is undertaking a major expansion of healthcare education in Central Louisiana. The university recently broke ground on a new Health Education Campus designed to increase nursing and allied-health training capacity. LSUA has identified regional workforce needs that include approximately 550 registered nurses and another 170 professionals in areas such as radiologic technology, surgical technology, echocardiography, medical laboratory science, dental hygiene and respiratory care.

Curry said addressing shortages in rural communities requires healthcare organizations and educational institutions to work together rather than independently.

“We can’t simply wait until healthcare professionals graduate and hope they move to rural Louisiana,” Curry said. “We have to work with our educational partners to develop that workforce from within our own communities. If someone from Avoyelles Parish wants to become a nurse, surgical technologist, therapist, physician, advanced-practice provider or another healthcare professional, we want to help connect that person with an educational pathway and, whenever possible, provide opportunities for them to train close to home.”

Creating opportunities close to home

Curry said one of the hospital’s long-term goals is to expose students to healthcare careers earlier while also creating opportunities for adults who want to advance professionally or change careers.

That concept closely parallels Louisiana’s broader rural-health workforce strategy, which includes university partnerships, expanded clinical rotations, mentorship, shadowing and healthcare-career exposure for middle- and high-school students. LSUA also currently operates a Future Nurses Program available to high-school students from Avoyelles and several surrounding parishes.

“Healthcare can provide tremendous career opportunities, and those opportunities shouldn’t require someone to leave their community permanently,” Curry said. “A student from Avoyelles Parish should be able to see a pathway that begins here, whether that’s being introduced to healthcare while they’re still in school, attending one of our local or regional universities, completing clinical training here and ultimately coming back to work and serve their community.”

For Curry, developing that pipeline has benefits extending beyond the hospital.

“When we help a local person develop into a healthcare professional, we aren’t just filling a position,” Curry said. “We’re creating a career, strengthening a family, supporting our local economy and building healthcare capacity that can remain in this community for decades.”

A local partner in healthcare education

Avoyelles Hospital’s responsibilities under the new agreement include providing dedicated educational space, supporting outreach and recruitment, facilitating clinical experiences and participating in planning intended to sustain the program over time. The MOU establishes a five-year term for the partnership.

Curry said the hospital intends for the LSUA partnership to be part of a much broader and continuing commitment to healthcare education.

“Avoyelles Hospital wants to be the local partner that helps connect education with opportunity,” Curry said. “We want our universities to know they have a partner here. We want students to know there is a place for them to learn here. And we want the people of Avoyelles Parish to know that we are committed to developing the healthcare workforce necessary to care for this community for generations to come.”