Nicole Oswell was a straight-A student passionately interested since first grade in following in her mother's footsteps as a registered nurse. But she had to wait two years to get into Los Angeles Trade Tech's nursing program, she said, her frustration mounting as national nursing shortages worsened.
Lizbeth Gutierrez got lucky. Her wait was only six months. But that's because she won a lottery for a space at East Los Angeles College, one way that nursing schools overwhelmed with applicants now select students. There are currently 17,000 qualified California applicants waiting to enter nursing programs and more than 130,000 in other states.One local hospital trying to do just that is Downey Regional Medical Center. The hospital has deliberately decided against relying on foreign nurses and instead produces its own nurses through partnerships with two community colleges.
Heather Conwell, Downey's chief nursing officer, said the hospital's experiences with foreign nurses weren't ideal. Several Filipino doctors retrained as nurses couldn't quite make the transition, she said, and a pair of Canadian nurses quit in mid-contract because, the hospital was told, Downey wasn't "close enough to the beach."
Source: California looks to help local students fill nursing shortage - Los Angeles Times
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