Kaweah Health photo

Kaweah Health announced in a virtual media briefing Friday the latest in its partnership with Unitek Learning, which offers the largest educational program for vocational nursing in California.

This partnership — first announced in July — will bring a new nursing school to Kaweah Health to help combat the nursing shortage that worsened during the pandemic and remains today.

The announcement comes after the Board of Registered Nurses unanimously approved an increase in the number of nursing student seats in the area by allowing Unitek to come to Kaweah Health to start the program.

“I believe that bringing this school into Kaweah Health will help improve access to care, improve quality of care, and improve the entire community in the Valley,” said Dr. Abdel R. Yousef, provost of Newport Beach-based Unitek Learning. “The nursing shortage is a safety issue and a public health issue. This is a crisis that needs to be solved.”

The school will train on average about 50 new nurses a year, with the first cohort starting in March 2023. Each cohort will have 25 students and last two to three years, depending on the pre-requisites the students have obtained prior to attending the school. Upon graduating, students will obtain a bachelor’s degree and spend three years working for Kaweah Health to repay the subsidy they will receive through the partnership.

“We really could not have done this without our partner Unitek,” said Kaweah Health Chief Nursing Officer Keri Noeske. “We are very grateful.”

The program is designed to increase educational capacity by providing faculty access and clinical experience to all students. By providing both of those factors, students will learn from senior nurses and gain real world training to prepare them for future careers, according to partnership officials.  

Despite community interest, the first cohort will be made up of Kaweah Health team members at this time. As the program progresses and becomes permanent for nursing students in the Central Valley, the program will be able to expand to the community.

Under the Unitek Learning umbrella are five separate colleges with more than a dozen campuses across the Western U.S.